Ultimate Life Forms
by Moebian Queen
Summary: Sonic is captured by Eggman with the help of Shadow, but once Eggman reveals his evil plans, Sonic's true past is revealed. Shadow is shocked to find out that not only was Sonic was created aboard the ARK as well, he was made specifically to be his brother.
1. Capture The Target

**Wow, it's been awhile since I wrote a multi-chapter fic. **

**Alright, you've read the summary, you've got the gist of the story. The only thing you need to know is that this story is set in the Sonic X universe with the only changes being Chris is not involved and Scourge also tagged along for the ride to Earth. Eggman's personality is more aligned with that of the Sonic X universe than of Archie, just in case anyone needed to know. **

**You don't need an understanding of the Archie universe to enjoy this story, as the most I'll use from it is the names of Tails' parents and the occasional reference to someone back on Mobius. **

**As for their ages, Sonic, Scourge, and Shadow are roughly 18 while Tails is still 8. **

**This story was originally a project I was doing with an author on deviant-art, you may have recognized the summary from that. Her account was deactivated and she never contacted me, so I've decided to go ahead and publish the story on my own, seeing as I did complete the outline and write most of the story on my own. **

**Anyways, I present to you: Ultimate Life Forms**

* * *

Chapter One: Capture The Target

_Space Colony ARK – 50 Years Ago_

"_Freeze!" The guard shouted as he raised his gun. "Take your hand off that lever!"_

_Maria turned and met his gaze for a moment, her young blue eyes filled with fear. Pushing her feelings of terror aside, she turned her attention back to the lever which would insure the safety of her friend and his newest companion. _

"_I'm not fooling around here!" The guard shouted, keeping his gun aimed directly at Maria._

"_Sayonara, Shadow the hedgehog." Using all her strength, she pulled down, launching the two pods towards earth. _

_A gun fired. _

_Suddenly, everything went black._

* * *

_G.U.N. Investigation Report_

_Due to an unfortunate accident and miscommunication, our initial suspicion of the abuse of government resources to fund and create the "ultimate life form" was false. _

_No evidence of such a creature ever existing was found in the laboratories or computer data. _

_A total of 57 casualties have been reported, a result of members of the ARK attempting to attack G.U.N. soldiers and failure to cooperate with the investigation. _

_Head scientist, Gerald Robotnik, has been arrested for interfering with an investigation and embezzlement of government funds. _

_A warning has been issued to the general public warning of falling space debris due to the accident, including two capsules. These capsules are highly unstable and are thought to contain nuclear power sources. All civilians are advised to steer clear of such debris and notify the proper authorities immediately. _

_As of this report submission, only one of the capsules has been found._

* * *

A loud and up-beat tune whistled down the hallway as the evil genius and self-proclaimed ruler of the world marched happily down the hall of the abandoned space station. It had taken months, but after yet another defeat at the hands of his speedy blue nemesis, Eggman was willing to take the time to perfect his plan.

Defeat at the hands of Sonic the hedgehog was nothing new to him; in fact it was practically a weekly occurrence. Heck, Eggman had built an empire, lost it to Sonic, built an entire army, and lost that too because of Sonic. It was also thanks to the blue rodent he had ended up in another world, completely separate from the one he knew. On the plus side, it meant he had a whole new world to take over. A new world filled with new resources and new people to enslave. A world where he was only faced with a few members of those pesky freedom fighters rather than entire cities of them.

On the downside, it meant he did not have any of his legionaries at his command to monitor the planet for him or carry out his orders, but he wasn't complaining. You give some, you get some.

This time, he was sure it would all go according to plan. That was what he always told himself before he launched a new campaign to rid himself of the blue speedster, but this time he was willing to wager his entire empire back on Mobius.

This time, he would not be working alone.

Beside him, a much shorter and greener figure walked along. A mirror image of Sonic, which was not too surprising as he was him from another universe, strolled beside him. Scourge the Hedgehog, former king of Moebius.

Scourge had his arms folded behind his head, leaning back slightly as he walked, completely at ease.

As the two approached the end of the hallway, the metallic doors slid open for them, revealing the ARK's observation deck.

Eggman smiled darkly, seeing the other ace in his hand already there on the deck, watching the planet below them. He knew he would be there. He alone held what the ultimate life form truly wanted.

"'Sup, Stripes!" Scourge greeted rather happily, glad he would not have to be alone with the fat man up in space. Shadow may not have been his favorite person on the planet, but at least he had someone around to keep him entertained.

Frowning, Shadow the Hedgehog turned from the window to face the two figures entering the room.

"Well, Shadow" Eggman began. "It's good to see you. I had a feeling you would accept my invitation."

"Let's just cut to the chase." Shadow replied, not in the mood for any of the evil doctor's games. "The journal pages, you said you had them. Where are they?"

Eggman reached into his red jacket and drew some weathered, folded papers from the inner pocket. "They're right here, but you know what you have to do if you want them."

Shadow turned back to the window, staring at the blue planet once more. "Fine. I'll get you what you want." Though Shadow loathed the idea of working for Eggman as if he were one of his lackeys, he desperately needed the papers in Eggman's hands. They were the journal pages from Gerald Robotnik's scientific and personal journal, and the only remaining documents containing the truth about Shadow's past and creation. True, he could use brute force to get the papers out of Eggman's hands, but they were only part of the journal, not the whole thing. If he wanted the complete book, he would have to go along with what Eggman wanted.

Eggman smiled. "Excellent, I knew you wou-"

"But!" Shadow interrupted him before he could go off on a rant; wanting to be sure he was heard. "I will do it under one condition."

"And what is that?" Eggman asked, still smiling and genuinely interested in what the black hedgehog desired.

"You have to swear to me."

"Swear what?"

"Swear that you won't kill him." As much as he hated to admit it, Shadow was willing to stoop to some unethical means of getting what he wanted, but he wasn't willing to dirty his hands with blood for it.

Both Eggman and Scourge let out a rousing bout of laughter at this. Their laughter, however, was cut short as Eggman was suddenly on the floor with an angry black hedgehog standing over him with the front of his jacket in hand.

"I'm serious about this!" Shadow almost shouted. "Swear to me or I will teleport off the station right now and inform them of your whereabouts!"

"Since when did you care about him so much?" Scourge asked, still smirking, happily on his feet beside the two. He was enjoying the show, but even Shadow's refusal to be involved if death was involved was piquing his interest. It's not like the ultimate life form's hands were clean of blood in the first place.

"I fight those I have to." Shadow said, still glaring menacingly at the fat man beneath him. "I may have taken more lives than the both of you combined, but I refuse to have the blood of the innocent on my hands. I was created to protect the earth and that is exactly what I will do if you intend to end his life."

"Alright." Eggman pushed Shadow off of him and stood up, fixing his jacket. "You have my word. I won't kill the rat while he's on the ARK."

Satisfied, Shadow moved away from Eggman, turning to face Scourge instead. "That goes for you too!"

"Hey, I'm just following orders." Scourge put his hands up defensively, though the smile and chuckles resonating from him clearly gave away his lack of seriousness on the matter.

"Swear it." Shadow marched slowly to the green hedgehog until he was merely inches away from his face, clearly not satisfied with his previous answer. "Now!" He snarled under his breath.

"Alright, alright." Scourge snickered. "I swear I won't kill the pansy. Happy now?"

"For now." Shadow muttered, backing away from Scourge. He walked back to the doctor who was still trying to straighten his red lab coat out. "When do you want him?"

"Before the end of tonight."

Shadow removed his chaos emerald from its hiding place. Just as he was about to use it to leave, Scourge grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"Hold up, Stripes. This is a team effort!"

Shadow's face immediately fell even further at the thought of having to work with the green imbecile. "What? Why? I can handle this myself."

"Oh, I'm sure you can. But I'm not taking any chances. Scourge is going with you." Eggman confirmed the green hedgehog's statement. "You're going to nab him as a team. One-on-one, he can use his dumb luck to get away, but a two-on-one is a fight Sonic just can't win, not when his opponents are equally matched in skill."

"Fine. When do we leave?" Shadow asked, wanting to get the experience over with as quickly as possible. He was ready to go, but who knew what Eggman and Scourge had in mind.

"Just a few more hours."

* * *

Sonic inhaled, taking a deep breath of fresh mountain air as he lay on the ground. As much as he loved Station Square, he still needed a breather every now and then. That and the forest reminded him of his childhood home of Knothole. It was always nice to take a stroll through memory lane.

Deeply relaxed, the blue hedgehog closed his eyes, hoping to take a quick nap before heading back. Just as he was about to drift into unconsciousness, he felt a sharp object suddenly strike him on the side of his face.

Snapping up to full attention, Sonic looked down at his feet to find a rock.

"Hey, blue!"

Knowing exactly whom that voice originated from, Sonic scowled. It was his day to relax; he was not in the mood for his evil counterpart's games at the moment. "What do you want, Scourge? Can't it wait until tomorrow?" If Sonic did have to point out one good feature in Scourge during their time on Earth, it would have to be that he wasn't constantly trying to take over the planet. Scourge usually approached him when he was bored or Sonic chased after him when he was causing a ruckus downtown. The two of them would duke it out until Scourge either got tired or had his behind handed back to him by Sonic.

"No way. I've been itching for a fight these past few days, and I'm not taking 'no' for an answer." In the blink of an eye, Scourge was on top of Sonic, the two of them sliding towards the base of a nearby tree at full speed.

Putting his hands behind his head, Sonic used the impact to give himself some momentum. Pulling his legs close to his body, he kicked forward, sending Scourge flying off of him in the opposite direction as he curled up into a ball and bounced off the tree.

Scourge flipped himself mid-air, landing on his feet as adrenaline pumped through his veins. Not wasting any time, he charged straight for Sonic again.

The two hedgehogs both curled up to strike one another. Had any person ventured onto the scene, all they would have seen were the two ricocheting off one another at breath-taking speeds.

"How long are we going to do this for?" Sonic taunted as he dropped, grabbing the incoming Scourge by the front of his jacket and throwing him off course. "Another minute or so?"

"That's all the time I'll need to handle you!" Scourge hit the ground, sliding. Rather than charge head-on, he began running circles around Sonic.

With a smirk Sonic joined Scourge in running laps. "Trying to trap me? Come on, Scourge. You know that trick only works if the person you're trying to trap someone who can't run as fast as you."

"Well…" Scourge began, "It's funny that you should mention traps."

"Chaos Spear!"

Sonic's eyes grew wide as he saw Shadow suddenly materialize in front of him, sending a burst of yellow chaos energy his way. Though he tried to dodge the blast, the blue hedgehog still ended up taking the full brunt of the attack, having been too close to avoid it.

Hitting the ground and sliding on his back, Sonic had no time for a witty remark as Shadow suddenly appeared before him once more. Breaking the sound barrier, Sonic took off at super-sonic speed through the mountains with Shadow on his right and Scourge on his left.

"Joke's over guys. What's going on?" Though he hid it perfectly, Sonic was starting to feel slightly nervous. Scourge he could understand, but why was Shadow after him as well? Somehow, he doubted it was because the black and red hedgehog was bored.

"Why don't you come with us and find out?" Scourge tried to side-swipe Sonic into Shadow, but failed as Sonic jumped forward, landing a few feet in front of the two hedgehogs, still running.

Scourge ended up crashing into Shadow, momentarily throwing the two of them off Sonic's trail.

"Get off of me, you idiot!" Shadow grabbed Scourge's jacket and threw him back onto his feet. In a blast from his hover skates, he was back on Sonic's trail with Scourge close behind.

Sonic spun around to face the two hedgehogs, running backwards with a smirk. "Come on, Scourge! You're going to need at least a dinner and movie before I'll go home with you."

Growling, Scourge launched himself forward again, throwing a punch at his blue counterpart.

Sonic caught the punch with his right hand, using his left hand to catch a second punch Scourge attempted to strike him with. Unfortunately, he left an opening which Shadow had no problem taking.

With a swift kick to the abdomen from the black and red hedgehog, Sonic was once again grounded, only now, he was also overpowered. "Let go of me, Scourge!" He shouted to the green hedgehog who had taken the opportunity to flip the tables on the blue hedgehog and grab his hands instead.

"Now, Stripes!" Scourge ordered, trying to make sure Sonic didn't get away.

Sonic turned his attention back to Shadow only to see the darker hedgehog bringing a syringe to his arm. "What is that? What are you doing? Shadow! Stop!" He all but shouted as he fought with a newfound fervor. Managing to break one hand free of Scourge's grasp, he managed to slap Shadow's arm and the syringe away from him.

"Scourge, get a grip!" Shadow grabbed ahold of the arm Sonic managed to free and held it down with his own body weight as he set his knees directly down on it.

"Hey, this is harder than it looks!" Scourge defended as he used both of his hands to hold down Sonic's other arm.

"Guys! No, stop, get off!" No amount of adrenaline and fear could give Sonic the strength to get both super-speed hedgehogs off of him.

Shadow inserted the needle into Sonic's arm, which was no easy task as the hedgehog thrashed about madly, still trying to escape. He injected all the liquid and removed the needle.

"Shadow!" Sonic continued to shout. "What do you think you're doing?! What did you put in me?!"

"Just relax, Blue." Scourge laughed.

As hard as he tried to fight it, Sonic felt himself getting extremely weak. Before he knew it, his eyes were forcing themselves shut as he fell into a deep sleep.

"He's out for sure, right?" Scourge asked, still holding Sonic's arm down tightly should the hedgehog suddenly wake and try to attack again.

"Yes, he should be for the next few hours." Assuming Eggman hadn't lied to him about what was really in the syringe. For all he knew, he could have injected Sonic with a lethal poison. "Let's get out of here before anybody sees us."

"Really? You don't want to put his hand in water or at least draw something on his face?"

Shadow frowned and drew out his chaos emerald. "Chaos control."

* * *

**And that's the end of chapter one!**

**I should probably explain that G.U.N. report at the beginning. In Sonic X, that soldier Scarlett meets with says G.U.N. turned in a fake report and swore them all to secrecy. That matches with the information Rouge pulled from the computer, saying that neither of the tubes launched into space by Maria were never found, when in reality, one, Shadow's tube, was found. The report I wrote is supposed to be the fake one they submitted.**

**That and I subscribe to the theory that the government wasn't being stupid and mistaking Shadow for Sonic, but were actually framing Sonic for Shadow's crimes so they could cover up his existence. **

**None of this information is key to the story, it's just meant to explain how I'm seeing it right now.**

**If you liked it, review please! Reviews motivate me to update! **


	2. Revelations

**Welcome back! **

**I'm glad to see you've enjoyed the story enough to come back! So many people liked this story, I was so surprised! I'm happy to know that, though, so thank you! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

"Revelations"

Sonic awoke to a metallic ceiling overhead and a pounding headache. Blinking his eyes a few times, he tried to clear his vision unsuccessfully. Trying to regain awareness, Sonic moved his arms only to find them restrained above his head.

Looking around the room, Sonic was able to tell he was in some kind of medical facility, but everything seemed cold and metallic. The room was small with only one other unoccupied hospital bed to the right of him. His swimming vision made it hard to focus on details, but he didn't need his full eyesight to know he was in trouble.

Soft clicking sounds, much like a keyboard, caught Sonic's attention. As he turned to the source, he found Eggman typing at a computer. "Eggman?" Sonic whispered out in his weak voice. He found it strange that the fat man was not in his usual attire, but was wearing hospital scrubs instead.

Eggman looked up from his work in surprise, not expecting Sonic to be up so soon. "You have a very impressive metabolism, Sonic. I thought for sure you would be out for the rest of the day. It's no matter, only a few minutes delay in my plan."

"Plan?" Sonic asked. He had never before worried about Eggman's plans as they were always easy to foil, but for once in his life, he truly felt fear. He truly felt helpless. "What are you going to do?"

"Just some research." Eggman said calmly, motioning to the array of surgical weapons beside Sonic.

Sonic's eyes grew wide at the sight. "What kind of…research?" Nervousness was clearly evident in his voice.

"The scientific kind." Eggman responded with a laugh, enjoying the sight of Sonic at his mercy. "If it was up to me, you would be awake for the whole procedure, but don't worry."

Sonic watched as Eggman washed his hands and put on a pair of sterile surgical gloves. He then made his way over to some drawers on the side of the hospital room and pulled a syringe out of a nearby drawer, bringing it closer to Sonic.

"Don't worry, you won't feel a thing." Eggman inserted the needle into Sonic's arm and injected the contents.

Within moments, Sonic was unconscious once more.

"Besides." Eggman added, knowing he was speaking only to himself. "Shadow would have my heart on a platter if I hurt a quill on your head."

* * *

_50 Years Ago_

_Project Shadow- Mission Debrief _

_Mission Objective: Terminate Project Shadow_

_Following G.U.N. protocol, all Project Shadow files were secured and sent back to home base for further observation. _

_All scientists and personnel were arrested and sent back to Earth for debriefing and face potential charges. The head of the Project, Gerald Robotnik, has been placed in Maximum Security holding at Prison Island, awaiting further questioning. _

_Initial attempts to secure the Project Shadow were a failure as it was launched to earth along with a second pod in the emergency escape system. _

_Of the pods launched, we recovered one, Project Shadow, but the other was never found. It is assumed it contained the prototype to Project Shadow and burned up in the atmosphere._

* * *

Several monitors attached to Sonic beeped around him, indicating his body was still functioning properly. An IV needle in his arm kept him hydrated, though the hedgehog himself was completely unaware of this.

Though he had already completed many of the preparations needed for surgery, Eggman had one more task to do. Now that Sonic was out, he would be able to wash his abdomen off and plan his incision marks.

After carefully marking exactly where he was going to cut, he turned on the tape recorder next to him, preparing to take auditory notes of his procedure.

"Preparations for internal inspection of Gerald Robotnik's second ultimate life form beginning at precisely 12:37 A.M."

* * *

"Excellent work, Shadow." Eggman congratulated the black and red hedgehog.

"Hmm."

Back aboard the ARK, the two figures walked down the quiet metal hallway, towards the medical bay.

"Come now, Shadow. No need to be so modest." Eggman attempted to pat Shadow on the shoulder, but the deadly glare he received deterred him from doing so.

"Enough of your games, Doctor." Shadow crossed his arms, indicating he was serious. "I got you what you wanted. It's time to uphold your end of the bargain."

"Oh, alright. No need to take the fun out of everything." Rifling through the inner pockets of his jacket, Eggman procured a few pages of Dr. Gerald's journal and placed them in Shadow's outstretched hand.

Shadow looked through the pages, a frown on his face. The dates on the pages were out of order, and only a few. "These are only a few of the pages. Where is the rest of the journal?"

Now it was Eggman's turn to laugh. "I said I would give you the pages to my grandfather's journal. I didn't say anything about which pages you would get, which order you would get them in, or even how many at a time."

Within a moment, Eggman was half on the ground; the front of his jacket in Shadow's clenched fists.

"I believe I said enough with the games." Shadow growled, making sure his intentions were clear. "I will ask you only once. Where are the rest of the pages to Gerald Robotnik's journal?"

"If you want the other pages, you are going to have to work for them, just like you worked for these."

"What if I don't want to do your dirty work?" Shadow didn't like the idea of having to dirty his hands any further. The only reason he agreed to the mission was because he was promised Sonic would not be killed. He may not have considered the blue hedgehog a friend, but that didn't mean he wanted to sully his hands with his death or leave the earth prone to a takeover by Eggman.

"You're not captive here. You can leave any time you like, but the pages stay with me." Eggman smiled, knowing Shadow would have no choice but to accept his offer. It was no secret that Shadow was desperate to find any information he could about his past.

"Fine." Shadow gritted between clenched teeth. "But get this through your head, Doctor. I'm here for the journal pages and nothing more. I have no interest in power, or becoming one of your lackeys. Understand?"

Eggman pulled Shadow off of his jacket and stood up to his full height. "Fair enough. But if you ever decided to join Team Robotnik, a spot will always be open for you."

"I'm going to check up on Sonic." Shadow said as he tuned away from the fat man.

"Oh Shadow!" Eggman called, suspiciously happy. "Before you visit your friend, why don't you relax on the observational deck and maybe read through a few of those pages? I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised."

Shadow looked down to the pages in his hand. He turned back up to question the doctor, but found he was already out of the hall, the metal doors closing shut behind him.

Not knowing what to expect, Shadow began reading the first few lines of the journal pages as he made his way to the observational deck.

_February 12__th__, 1953_

That was the day G.U.N. invaded the ark. This was most likely the last page in the journal, made the morning of the attack.

Shadow was never really one to follow advice or take orders, but the observational deck was exactly where he went to clear his mind, and a clear mind was exactly what he needed.

Just as he settled down, he felt a presence hovering over him.

"Watch'ya got there, Stripes?" Scourge asked, leaning over Shadow's shoulders to get a better look at the writing on the paper in his hands.

Without looking up from the journal pages, Shadow used his free hand to push Scourge's face away. The green hedgehog had no business knowing about any of this, and frankly, he was not in the mood to put up with him.

"Come on, Shads." Scourged tried once more, leaning over Shadow's other shoulder. "Now you're only making me want to know more."

Shadow folded the sheets of paper together and tucked them away, out of Scourge's sight. "We've been up here less than twenty four hours and you're already getting on my nerves. Don't you have anything else to do up here?"

"You know this place better than I do. I've only been here a week." Scourge took a seat next to Shadow on the floor in front of the window. "You tell me."

"Aren't you supposed to be watching Sonic?" Shadow asked, recalling the evil doctor had told them to switch off on keeping watch. For some odd reason, Eggman didn't want Sonic restrained after the 'procedure', and it was their job to make sure he didn't try anything foolish when he awoke.

Scourge rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine, if you want me out of here that bad." He put his hands in his pockets and sauntered towards the hall leading to the medical bay, leaving Shadow alone.

Shadow settled down once more in front of the spectacular view of earth and took the journal pages out. Not knowing what to expect, but still hoping for the best, he began reading.

_It took a little longer than expected, approximately eight years longer than I expected, but alas, it was done. _

_I was finally able to create a companion for Shadow…_

* * *

_The ARK, 50 Years Ago_

"_Shadow!" A young feminine voice echoed down the cold halls of the ARK. "Shadow, where are you?"_

_The voiced continued to travel until it reached the ears of the black and red hedgehog in the library. Shadow placed the book he was reading on the table in front of him, still open so he could return to his page later. He got up and stepped into the hallway, just in time to see his dear friend, Maria Robotnik running towards him, excitement evident on her face._

"_Shadow!" She said cheerfully, grabbing his hand as soon as she reached him. "Shadow, come quick! Grandfather has a surprise for you!"_

_Intrigued, Shadow skated along at Maria's rate, allowing her to lead him by the hand to the ARK's laboratory. _

_Inside, Gerald was already at his desk, taking notes with one hand at a quick pace. In his free arm was a bundle, wrapped up in a white towel. _

_Gerald looked up from his work, happy to see his granddaughter had brought exactly who he was looking for. "Shadow, my boy, come here. I have a surprise for you." Gerald got up, walking a few feet before getting down on his knees, so the bundle was at Shadow's level, motioning for the hedgehog to come closer. _

_Shadow approached slowly. _

"_Shadow, do you recall the conversation I had with you last month? The one about your future?" Gerald asked in a kind voice._

"_Yes." Shadow had been pulled aside not only to talk about his future but of Maria's as well. Though Gerald was working very hard on finding a cure for Maria's NIDS, eventually, she would expire, be it from the disease or reaching old age. The doctor himself would expire, and so would everyone on board the ARK. Unlike himself, they were not immortal. Shadow was completely aware of this already, but every now and then, Gerald would remind him, in order to keep Shadow in touch with reality. At the last chat they had, Gerald had promised that he would find a solution for this 'problem.' _

"_I have finally come up with a solution." Gerald lifted one arm out from underneath the bundle and pulled the wrapped towel off of it. _

_Inside was a small blue hedgehog, no older than three years. His eyes were closed and his breathing slow. _

_Shadow watched in silent amazement as the small blue creature continued its slumber, unaware of the people around it. _

"_What do you think, Shadow?" Maria asked, breaking him out of his thoughts. _

"_Who is he?" Shadow asked, not quite understanding the situation._

"_Genetically, he is your younger brother." Gerald explained. "Like you, he is an ultimate life form created from the DNA of Black Doom. He does carry many different traits than you, as I'm sure you can see by the different fur color. I was thinking about calling him Sonic."_

"_Sonic?" Shadow asked. _

"_Yes. He has the ability to run at the speed of sound. I'm sure you know what happens once you hit the sound barrier. You've done it several times yourself."_

"_Yes," Even Shadow had to admit the name was clever. "You get a sonic boom." _

_Maria simply watched from beside Shadow, a smile on her face as he got acquainted with the newest member of the family. _

"_He's very…small…" Shadow wanted to hold the small blue hedgehog, but was felt the creature was too frail for his hands. _

"_He's not quit complete yet. At least age-wise, he isn't." Gerald pointed to the small, infant sized tube on the desk. "This tube, the same one you were born from, can only age him to a certain point. Tonight will be his last night in the tube and tomorrow he will be moved to the larger pod so he can reach his full growth potential." _

"_How old will he be?" _

"_Once the age-progression is complete, he will be your age, about 18 years old." _

_Shadow stared at the small hedgehog again with so many questions flying through his mind. "Doctor?" He said without taking his eyes off his new brother. "You have explained my purpose to me already. What will Sonic's purpose in life be?" _

_Gerald sometimes had to wonder where Shadow got his philosophical nature from. No doubt from Maria and her curious nature. There was only really one reason he created Sonic, and it was the only answer he had for Shadow. "To be your companion, your life-long friend. Sonic's purpose in life is to make sure you are never lonely, even long after Maria and I are gone from this world."_

_Shadow was speechless. Gerald, his father, loved him enough to make sure he would never be alone in life. _

"_Don't think it's going to be all fun and games!" Maria teased her silent friend. "Siblings are a lot of work!" _

"_You know, she's right." Gerald joined in. "It's going to be your job to look out for him. As the older brother, you are expected to know better and to keep him out of trouble." _

"_Keep him out of trouble? Is he going to be mischievous?"_

"_I can only control the genes, Shadow." Gerald wrapped Sonic back up in the towel to keep him warm. "Personality is a choice he is going to make on his own. Just as you became the person you are; Sonic will decide who he will become." Gerald stood back up and walked over to the larger age-progression chamber. "A few more days and he will be ready to greet the world, but until then, you have to promise me you will take care of him."_

"_I promise."_

* * *

Shadow stood in front of the doors to the ARK's medical bay. He had absolutely no idea what to do or expect. So many things were running through his mind at the moment and none of it made sense.

If Sonic were created aboard the ARK, why did he grow up on Mobius? How did he get there? Why Sonic was never found during the day of the attack on the station?

The escape tube Shadow had been on was in the lab, along with the second tube that was never found. Was Sonic the creature in the second tube?

Shadow growled in frustration. It still didn't make any sense. If Sonic was in the second tube, it should have fallen to earth, not ended up in a completely different dimension.

He needed those other journal pages!

Shadow leaned forward to slam his face into the doors out of anger, but instead fell forwards as the doors slid open automatically.

Embarrassed to have done such a thing, Shadow quickly picked himself up off the floor, but it was too late. He had already been seen.

"Smooth, Stripes." Scourge laughed as he leaned back on the unoccupied hospital bed, pulling his sunglasses off of his eyes. "I know I'm drop-dead gorgeous, but please, I insist, no need to drop completely."

Shadow frowned. How much trouble could he possibly get into for throwing Scourge into space? Doing his best to ignore the green hedgehog, he looked over to the occupied hospital bed and felt his heart sink immediately.

Sonic, his little brother, the one he had promised his father-figure he would protect, lay on the bed in front of him, stitches running down his front and several monitors plugged into him as he slept.

He may not have had any recollection of ever making that promise, but Shadow still felt awful for agreeing to do this to Sonic.

Slowly, he approached the sleeping hedgehog, stopping just in front of his bed.

On Sonic's chest, covering the stitches, was a wet towel.

Yet another frown graced Shadow's features as he turned to Scourge. "Why is this here?" he asked, pointing to the towel.

"To help with that burning feeling you get after you get stitches. I doubt Eggman gave him any painkillers, heck, I'm surprised he even put him to sleep. Knowing how crazy that guy could get, I thought for sure he would cut him open while he was awake."

Shadow took the towel off Sonic's chest and threw it on the floor.

"Hey, what did you do that for?" Scourge demanded to know as his good deed for the day fell to the ground.

"It's unsanitary." Who knew what microbes were crawling all over the towel, seeping into Sonic's wound. "Was that even a clean towel?"

"Yes," Scourge scoffed "It was. Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"Well, actually-"

"Never mind." Scourge cut him off, already knowing what Shadow's answer would be. "Just put it back on him. I bet he's in pain."

"No, you're going to give him an infection!" Shadow kicked the towel away, not wanting Scourge to further compromise Sonic's health. "Why do even care if he's in pain?"

"I don't know." Scourge shrugged. "I guess I just kind of saw a bit of myself in him. Listen, Stripes. You may have never been at the bottom of the pits, but I have, and let me tell you, it's not fun."

"Wow, Scourge." Shadow smirked mockingly. "I'm tearing up, that was so poetic. Do you want a round of applause?"

"You can take that applause and shove it up your-"

"It's my turn to watch Sonic." Shadow cut him off. "Go get some rest."

* * *

**I would like to remind everyone that will be absolutely NO SLASH OR ROMANCE in this fic. **

**No, please don't ask. **

**Anyways, everything will come together, so just hang tight!**

**So many people reviewed and read this fic on just the first chapter, I was so surprised! I am so happy to know you guys are enjoying this and all the reviews pumped me up to write! I can't wait! **

**Review please! All your messages of support mean so much to me! **


	3. Waking Up

**I'm writing this while on vacation from work. So relaxing!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

"Waking Up"

For the second time, Sonic awoke in the medical bay.

His vision was much clearer now, but his headache was replaced with a fire-like burning feeling running down his chest to his stomach. He was not restrained this time around, and found his hands free to move about.

Sonic moved his arms to test his strength, but quickly stopped as the pain in his chest intensified, reaching an unbearable level. "Aargh!" He shouted, closing his eyes to stop the tears while dropping his arm back to his side.

When he opened his eyes again, Shadow was standing over him, a look of concern over his face. "Are you in pain?" He asked.

Forgetting about his current predicament, Sonic glared at him. "No, not at all! Everything's fine and dandy! Sunshine and roses! I've never been better!" Ignoring the fact it was making his pain worse, Sonic turned over so his back was all Shadow could see.

Choosing to ignore Sonic's sarcasm, Shadow continued. "Just tell me what's wrong."

Sonic remained silent.

Shadow was slightly put off by Sonic's reaction. The fact that the hedgehog before him was related to him was still having a tough time registering in his mind along with everything else he knew about him. "Come on, Faker. Let me help!" Shadow said in frustration. The one being left in the world who was his family was angry with him, and rightfully so.

"You can help by getting out of my sight!"

Now Shadow was beginning to get a little irritated at Sonic's childish behavior. The great hero of Mobius had resorted to using the silent treatment as if he were three years old. "I'm just trying to help you. What's wrong with you?"

Sonic tuned himself over once more so he was facing Shadow again. "What's wrong with me?!" He shouted, which wasn't very loud giving his present state. "What's wrong with you? You're working for Eggman! Again!" Sonic gripped the metal rails lining the hospital and pulled himself up so he was at eye level with Shadow. "What do you think you're going to accomplish? How many times have we gone through this?"

"You think I want to work for him? He's the only one who can help me right now!"

"Help you?! The only person Eggman helps is himself!" Supporting himself with one arm, Sonic grabbed his chest and closed his eyes, unable to ignore the pain any longer.

Shadow's eyes widened as he saw the stitches on Sonic's chest begin bleeding. "Sonic, you're bleeding." He reached over and firmly grasped the cobalt hedgehog's shoulders. "You need to calm down." He tried to ease Sonic back into the bed, but the stubborn hedgehog refused, lashing out.

Shadow let go of Sonic and ducked to avoid being punched in the face.

Sonic brought his arm back to his chest. He felt his stomach churning and immediately leaned over the hospital bed.

Within seconds, the floors were covered with vomit.

Knowing the vomiting probably took the last ounces of energy out of Sonic, Shadow grabbed his shoulders again and successfully eased him back into a laying position. He would have propped Sonic up on his back, to help ease the nausea he was feeling, but that would have only put stress on the stitches, which were still leaking blood, so he settled for laying him completely on his back.

Working quickly, Shadow pulled some clean towels out from one of the cabinets in the room and used it to wipe the vomit off of Sonic's face.

Sonic was dazed. He had never before felt so exhausted in his life. Breathing itself seemed to take too much energy and feelings of hurt and betrayal were not making it any better.

Not knowing what else he could do, Shadow ran calling "I'll be back" to Sonic as he was out the door. He sped through the ARK, searching for the one who had caused his little brother all this pain.

* * *

He found Eggman in the ARK's workshop, tinkering away on some machinery.

"Doctor, Sonic is bleeding!" Shadow burst out as he almost broke the sliding doors down in his rush to get into the workshop.

"Eh?" Eggman looked up from his machine. "Oh, right. He'll be fine. Minor bleeding from stitches is normal after a surgery."

"He's in pain."

Eggman waved, indicating the matter wasn't important to him. "He'll be fine, he is an ultimate life form after all, as I'm sure you know by now. You know what they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." As he was about to continue working, he felt a crushing grip on his shoulder.

"He needs care. Now." Shadow's voice may have been calm and collected, but the fierce look in his eyes left no room for argument.

"Alright, alright, no need to be like that." Eggman casually brushed Shadow's hand off, not frightened by the implied threat at all. "Follow me."

The two walked together towards the medical bay, though Shadow wished Eggman would pick up the pace.

"Why so nice to Sonic all of a sudden?" Eggman asked tauntingly. "Taking your role as 'big brother' seriously?"

It was no surprise to Shadow that Eggman had read through the journal. It did belong to his grandfather after all, making him the rightful successor to it. Had that not been the case, Shadow would have simply taken the journal and not had to go through any of this trouble. Then again, there was the issue of him not knowing where it was.

"Giving me the cold shoulder, eh? Fine, be that way."

Once they arrived, Eggman began pulling more supplies out while Shadow stood by Sonic.

Sonic must have either fallen asleep or fallen unconscious as he was unresponsive with his eyes shut when Shadow called his name.

As Eggman seated himself on a stool next to Sonic's bed he took the hedgehog's arm and held it out, preparing to give him an injection.

Shadow quickly put his hands on top of the syringe, stopping it before it could be injected into Sonic. "What is this?" He asked, wanting to know exactly what Eggman was doing.

"This is just a pain reliever." Eggman continued his work, finding the proper vein in Sonic's arm and emptied the contents of the syringe into it. Next, he cut the bandages off of Sonic's torso and gently wiped the blood off of them. "This" he showed Shadow a white tube of cream "Is antibiotic ointment. It will stop the stitches from getting infected. It's going to need to be applied every time his bandages are changed." After applying the ointment and putting a fresh set of gauze around the stitches, Eggman handed a bottle of pills to Shadow. "If he wakes up and still feels nauseous have him take one of these every four to six hours."

Shadow took the bottle from Eggman, reading the label to be sure it wasn't some kind of poison.

"Now," Eggman stood up, removing the sterile gloves from his hands and tossing them into the garbage can. "If you don't mind, I need to get back to my work. The Eggman Empire isn't going to build itself." Just as he was halfway out the door, he stopped, hearing Shadow call his name.

"Doctor!"

"Yes?"

"If you value your life, I recommend you don't do anything like this again."

Eggman couldn't help but be amused, seeing Shadow be protective of Sonic. Just the other day, the ebony hedgehog couldn't have cared less about him. "Don't worry; I got the information I needed. Besides, it was a good thing I did. Give it a week or two and he would have been in a lot more pain than he is now."

Shadow wanted to question him further, but the doors had already shut behind him.

* * *

_Seven Days Later_

"Tails!" Amy banged on the door to the fox's workshop in the Mystic Ruins. "Tails, open this door up right now!"

Inside the workshop, Tails groaned. He was way too comfortable in his bed at the moment.

"I know you're in there, Tails!" Amy continued calling from outside. "Wake up!"

Throwing off the covers, Tails rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and headed downstairs. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" He yelled back to Amy. "Don't break my door down!" He scurried down the stairs in hopes of not having to replace yet another door destroyed by Amy's Piko-Piko hammer.

"Tails!" Amy almost shouted as soon as the door opened. "Where is Sonic?"

Tails glanced at the clock on the wall. "Amy, it is five in the morning. Couldn't this wait?"

"Tails, I'm serious! Have you seen Sonic these past few days? At all?"

Now that he thought about it, Sonic hadn't come to crash for the night in a few days, but this wasn't anything out of the ordinary. "Amy, you know Sonic sometimes leaves for a few days at a time. He's probably off running on the other side of the planet right now."

Amy knew this was true, after all Sonic enjoyed his freedom. "I know, but… I just feel like something is wrong. I mean, neither Eggman nor any other baddy has attacked in a while either and it's just raising some alarm bells in my head."

Tails thought it over for a moment. "Well, it is weird that no one has used Sonic's absence as an excuse to attack like they usually do." He still believed Amy was overreacting, but it never hurt to check. "Alright. We can check with Knuckles first, he might know where Sonic has run off to."

"Yes, thank you Tails!" Amy wrapped her arms around him, giving him a bone-crushing hug.

"Amy…please…can't…breathe…"

* * *

"Scourge, you lazy bum, where are you?" Eggman shouted down the halls of the ARK. The no good green hedgehog had either broken or lost, most likely the latter, his communicator watch. Now he was forced to find him in-person like those savage overlanders in this dimension. "Scourge! I swear, if you're drinking all the booze again, I'm going to-"

Eggman almost tripped as he found who he was looking for. On the floor in front of him was a semi-conscious Scourge with a spilled bottle of alcohol laying by his hand. His close proximity to the living quarters was a clear indicator he had passed out attempting to get to his room.

"Wake up!" Eggman kicked Scourge's arm none too gently.

In truth, Scourge had been awake the whole time and had heard him calling about ten minutes ago, but simply chose not to respond. He was hoping if he laid low long enough the evil doctor would give up and simply give the task to Shadow, but lady luck was not on his side today. "What?" He asked clearly. Hangovers no longer bothered him due to his experience with binge drinking.

"I've got a mission for you, and I'm sure it's one you will enjoy, so get your miserable behind off the floor and follow me."

Grumbling, Scourge got up. He picked up the bottle of alcohol off the floor, checked to see if any had still managed to stay in the bottle, and threw it away after the disappointment. "What do you want me to do?"

The two arrived in the ARK's workshop, where Eggman kept the chaos emeralds.

"I'm sure by now Sonic's little gang will be suspicious about his disappearance. I need you to go down there and stop their little investigation."

Sounded easy enough. "You want me to take them out?"

"No, Shadow will have a fit, and I still need him on our side. Just wreak some havoc, rough them up a bit, I don't care. Just don't do something you know would anger Shadow."

Scourge rolled his eyes. Was Eggman going to ask him to roll the red carpet out for Shadow as well?

"Scourge!" Eggman snapped when he noticed the green hedgehog was not paying attention. "I'm serious!"

"Okay, I got it! I won't piss off your precious little Shadow." Scourge watched as Eggman opened the containment unit for the chaos emeralds. He caught an emerald when Eggman tossed it his way. "Anything else?"

"Yes, actually. Thanks to a certain someone, we're going to need more alcohol. Stock up while you're down there."

Booze and destruction; two of Scourge's favorite things. Now, he was happy Eggman hadn't given the task to Shadow. "Chaos Control!"

* * *

After convincing Amy to wait until sunrise, and managing to get a few more hour of sleep, Tails was up and ready to journey through the jungle.

"I still can't believe you wanted to wait until morning." Amy said as they followed the dirt path past the ancient echidna city.

"Come on, Amy. Do you really think it would be a good idea to wake up Knuckles? Have you ever seen him when he doesn't get enough sleep?"

Amy knew Tails was right. There was no way any progress would be made if Knuckles got into one of his tempers again. "Fair enough."

After clearing the jungle, the two walked towards the rickety wooden bridge, connecting Shrine Island to the rest of the floating island.

"Hey, Knuckles!" Amy called out as they got closer.

Knuckles cracked an eye open from his spot in front of the Master Emerald. He had been awake for an hour at this point, only resting because he had finished training for the morning. "Amy, Tails." He stood up and climbed down the steps if the shrine to greet them.

"Hi, Knuckles." Tails began. "Sorry to show up so early, but we-"

"Sonic's been missing for a whole week, we can't find him, and we have no idea where he is, so we were wondering you had seen him around!" Amy said quickly in one breath, cutting Tails off.

"Basically what she said." Tails reiterated.

"Now that I think about, I actually haven't seen Sonic these past few days." Sonic always took any chance he had to bother Knuckles. Even the echidna found it strange that Sonic had not stopped by. He usually did before leaving on a trip, asking him to help Amy and Tails keep an eye on things in Station Square while he was gone. "He didn't tell you where he was going?"

"No." Tails responded. "He just said he was going out for a run. I figured he changed his mind and probably decided to take a trip somewhere."

"Knowing Sonic, he probably did." Knuckles shrugged. "Besides, Sonic can handle himself, I doubt-"

"What's that?" Amy asked, stopping Knuckles mid-sentence. She pointed to a plume of smoke rising in the distance over the jungle. "A fire?"

Knuckles frowned. "I knew letting the humans come here as tourists was a bad idea. They're destroying the jungle and desecrating the ruins!"

Tails' suddenly felt the blood rush out of his face as noticed where the smoke was rising from. "My workshop!" he shouted.

In a flash, the three Mobians were off, sprinting through the jungle.

* * *

Scourge coughed, pulling the sleeve of his jacket over his face to avoid inhaling any more smoke. With a gardening hose in hand, he walked through Tails' workshop, spraying down everything electronic in sight.

The computers had begun sparking right away, short circuiting along with every other machine he drenched. Once he started hitting the electric sockets, the whole place had become enveloped in smoke.

Realizing his current plan wasn't the best idea he'd ever had, Scourge ran around the place, opening up every window. The fresh air only helped a little as smoke continued to engulf the workshop. Not wanting to die of smoke inhalation, he decided it was time to end it.

Scourge rolled up into a ball and began bouncing around the place at super-speed. He purposely smashed into every monitor and device he could, being sure to knock over as much furniture as possible on the way. Once he was satisfied with the mess he had created, he bounced directly to the bottom floor, building momentum. As soon as he hit the ground, he flew straight upwards, bursting through the roof, leaving a huge hole behind.

He landed a few feet away from the smoking wreck, still coughing. He wiped the debris from the roof off of his jacket and looked around, searching for something else he could destroy.

Just a few more feet away from the workshop was the X Tornado.

Grinning like the maniac he was, Scourge pulled his lighter out of his jacket pocket and flipped it open. He walked to the X Tornado and punched the lid to the fuel tank off. He dropped the lighter into the tank and immediately burst into super-speed, stopping a few hundred feet away at the foot of the jungle entrance.

Just behind him, Amy, Tails, and Knuckles ran into the scene.

"Scourge!" Tails shouted. "What are you doing here?!"

"You're just in time to enjoy the show, squirt." Scourge motioned to the X Tornado with his thumb, smiling wickedly. .

An incredibly loud booming sounds resonated throughout the entire island as the X Tornado exploded into a fiery mass. Instantly, everyone raised their arms to their faces to avoid the small pieces of debris that were flying in the air. Their distance saved them from having to dodge the larger pieces of the explosion.

After the initial blast, everyone stared at the torched remains. The Mobians in shock, while Scourge simply watched with a vicious smile to admire his handiwork. The ground where the X Tornado once stood was now char-black and the vegetation around the workshop now on fire along with the wooden frame of the building.

"What have you done?!" Shouted Knuckles angrily, waving his fists in the air. "You've put the island in danger! This whole jungle could go up in flames!"

"And you destroyed my plane!" Tails added.

"Sorry, dudes. I'm just following orders. No hard feelings, right?" Scourge laughed. His laughter was cut short as a hammer suddenly struck him, sending him a flying several feet towards the wreckage.

"Alright, wise guy." Amy said, clearly fuming as she approached the fallen green hedgehog. "Where's Sonic?"

Scourge pulled himself up, wiping a bit of blood off the corner of his mouth. "What makes you think I know where Blue is?" He asked with a grin.

"He disappears and then suddenly you show up?" Amy griped her hammer harder, resisting the urge to beat Scourge to a pulp before she got the answers she needed. "It can't be a coincidence."

"Smart girl." Scourge suddenly ducked as he felt a punch coming from behind.

Knuckles pulled back after missing Scourge, preparing to take aim again. "So you do know where he is?"

"Yeah, I know where he is." Scourge side-stepped Knuckles' next punch. He knew he should run, he was outnumbered after all, but it was just too much fun riling up the freedom fighters.

While Scourge was distracted with Amy and Knuckles, Tails grabbed a metal rod which had been flung all the way to them by the explosion. Quietly, he walked closer to the fight, doing his best to stay out of Scourge's line of vision.

"Tell us! Now!" Amy demanded, throwing her hammer like a boomerang.

Jumping into the air, Scourge landed a kick right at the head of the hammer, sending it flying back to Amy.

Unable to grab it in time, the Piko Piko hammer struck the pink hedgehog directly in the stomach, knocking her to the ground.

Taking the opportunity to catch Scourge off guard, Tails flew up into the air, towards Scourge, who was coming down. The fox kit brought the rod up and began striking Scourge as many times as he could before he reached the ground.

As they came closer to the charred remains of the burnt grass, Tails pulled up. Scourge on the other hand, unable to fly and unable to right himself, fell to the ground in a heap.

Tails landed smoothly in front of Scourge, brandishing the metal rod. "Where is he?!" He demanded as the others had. "Where is my brother?!"

Scourge steadied himself with his hands as he pushed himself up from the ground, spun his legs forward, and knocked Tails right off of his feet. He kicked the rod out Tails' grasp and jumped back to his feet. Before Tails could get a chance to gather his bearings, Scourge put his foot on his head, pushing down and grinding it into the singed ground.

"You want to know where your bro' is?" Scourge taunted. "He's up there." He said while pointing to the sky.

"What?" Amy gasped.

"Yup." Scourge knew exactly what he was implying, but it was just so much more fun letting the group think Sonic had met his end. Eggman did tell him to throw their investigation off. What better way than by convincing them the blue hero was dead? "Blue's in the big blue himself."

"You bastard!" Knuckles roared in rage. He charged at the green hedgehog once more, swinging blindly.

Scourge braced for impact, not wanting to release Tails from underneath him. He placed his hands in front of himself, using them to catch Knuckles' punch. He then gripped Knuckle's arm tightly, lifted him up off the ground, and threw him at Amy.

The two fell into a pile as Scourge's taunting laughter continued to ring in their ears.

While Scourge was distracted once more, Tails used the opportunity to plan another attack. He reached into his glove, silently removing the screwdriver he always kept hidden there. Careful not to move his head from underneath Scourge's foot and alert him, he swung his arm swiftly and stabbed the back of Scourge's knee with the screwdriver.

Scourge's laughs turned into shouts of pain as he fell forward, off of Tails. The green hedgehog emitted another agonized scream as he landed on his stabbed knee. There was no way he would be able to run or jump with that leg now.

Not wasting any time, Knuckles and Amy surrounded Scourge as Tails marched up to the green hedgehog, bloody screwdriver in hand.

"What did you to my brother?" Tails asked in an eerily calm manner.

"What if I don't feel like answering? What are you going to do? Kill me with that little toy of yours?" Scourge moved his hand out from behind his injured knee and tauntingly flicked a few drops of his blood on Tails.

Losing his patience, Tails grabbed the front of Scourge's jacket and began shaking him violently. "Tell me, where is he?! Where is Sonic?! What happened to him?!"

Scourge used the close proximity as an opportunity to punch Tails square in the nose, releasing himself from the kit's grasp in the process. He stood up, putting his weight on his good knee. "I told you, Sonic's in the heavens now." The smirk returned to his face as he saw everyone's horrified face. They were actually starting to believe him. "As for what happened, you might want to talk to Stripes about it."

"Stripes?" Tails asked, knowing it was Scourge's nickname for Shadow. "What does Shadow have to do with this?"

Scourge shrugged. "Like I said, why don't you ask him?" He moved a step back, practically hopping as he tried to avoid using his injured knee. "Now, if you don't mind, I've got some other things I need to attend to."

"You're not getting away that easily. You can't even run with your leg like that!" Amy could see the wound and small blood pool clearly from where she stood, and it looked painful.

"Who said anything about running?"

A look of dread passed through the Mobian trio as they realized what Scourge intended to do. They all lunged from Scourge at the same time, but it was too late.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

Scourge was gone.

"Damn it!" Knuckles shouted, punching a hole into the already destroyed earth. "We have to go after him!"

"First thing first," Tails spoke up. "We take care of the ruins. Then we find Shadow."

* * *

**I've never been any good at fight scenes, so I hope that wasn't too boring.**

**I know I already said it last chapter, but I am so thrilled you guys are enjoying this! **

**Review please! I know I don't always respond to them, but I treasure each and every one!**

**On a side note out of curiosity, if I wrote a Mighty Max fanfiction, how many people would read it? Better yet, how many people even know what I am talking about? LOL. I miss those days. **


	4. I Don't Think You're On Earth Anymore

**These chapters were written completely out of order. That's what happens when you don't plan things properly. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

"I Don't Think You're On Earth Anymore"

Sonic's eyes cracked open as he heard the automatic doors slide shut.

Ever so slowly, Scourge limped into the room. Silently, he opened up drawers and cabinets around the medical bay, grabbing any and all medical supplies he could get his hands on. Once he could carry no more, he dumped them all on the bed adjacent to Sonic's.

At this point, the blue hedgehog was curious. He could see the bleeding wound on Scourge's leg among his other scrapes and bruises, but unless the green hedgehog was planning on amputating the limb, he didn't need that many bandages or sutures for that matter. Sonic decided to remain silent and see what Scourge planned to do.

Scourge jumped up onto the bed, immediately hissing in pain, realizing too late it wasn't a good idea to put any force on the puncture wound in his leg.

Ignoring the blood that had dripped onto the floor and bed, Scourge began sloppily cleaning his leg. He poured some antiseptic solution onto a towel, spilling most of it onto the floor and the bed before using it to wipe off the blood from his leg and disinfect the wound. Ignoring the sting, he began unwinding a roll of gauze. In a few quick strokes, the gauze was wrapped tightly around his leg.

As Scourge moved to take off his jacket, he noticed his blue counterpart staring at him. He pulled the black sleeves off and threw the jacket at Sonic's face. "What are you looking at, blue?" He asked sarcastically.

"You, obviously." Sonic pulled the jacket off of his face, dropping it to rest on top of his blanket. "You look like you got hit by an eighteen-wheeler. What happened?"

"Just ran into some trouble, nothing big."

"There is a trail of blood behind you." Sonic pointed to the floor.

Scourge looked over the bed. Sure enough, there was a small trail of blood droplets leading from the door to the various cabinets where he gotten the supplies and ending at the edge of the bed. He briefly wondered how far the trail went. To the observatory where he had landed after escaping with Chaos Control? "So there is."

Sonic continued to watch in silence as Scourge struggled to wrap an open cut on his arm with one hand for a few minutes. "Need some help?" He offered.

Scourge scoffed at the hedgehog sitting across from him. "How do I know you won't try to strangle me with the bandages or something like that?"

"If I had the strength to fight and strangle you, I would have already used it to destroy this place and escape.

Scourge paused for a moment, thinking it over. He wasn't getting anywhere by himself. "Okay, fine. But try anything and you'll be sorry."

Sonic scooted over on his bed, making room for Scourge and the unnecessary amount of supplies he had brought.

Half sitting on the edge of the bed, half hanging off, Scourge held his arm out for Sonic to care to.

Sonic carefully wiped off the cut with a fresh antiseptic-soaked cloth, making a show to Scourge of not spilling any of the liquid.

Scourge rolled his eyes at the gesture, but continued to watch as Sonic applied a sterile pad to the cut before he began wrapping the gauze around it, tight enough to prevent further bleeding, but not too tight that it cut off his blood circulation.

"There, all done."

Scourge examined the wrapping. "Feeling generous today or something?"

Now it was Sonic's turn to roll his eyes. "I may not like what you do, but that doesn't mean I like seeing you in pain. We may be counterparts, but that doesn't mean I take pleasure in the same things you do."

Scourge mockingly placed a hand over his chest. "Now you're breaking my heart, blue."

Sonic returned Scourge's earlier gesture by taking the green hedgehog's jacket from his lap and throwing it in his face. "A simple 'thank you' would be good enough, you know."

Scourge laughed as he slipped the jacket back on. "Fine. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

There was a pause as Scourge simply continued to sit on the edge of Sonic's bed.

"Aren't you going to go or something?" Sonic asked, puzzled that Scourge had not taken the opportunity to leave and binge drink.

"It's my turn to watch you, you know, to make sure you don't do anything stupid."

Sonic scooted back to the center of the bed, knocking Scourge off before pushing the rest of the supplies off the bed as well.

Scourge landed in a pile on the floor along with the medical supplies. He pushed himself up, rubbing the bump that was sure to form on the back of his head. "Don't you think I've taken enough of a beating already?" He once again mocked in a sad voice.

Sonic rolled his eyes again and pulled his blanket up to his neck, turning over onto his side. "I'm going to sleep. Goodnight, Scourge."

"Fine, blue. Be that way." Scourge continued to grumble something about it not actually being night in Station Square at the moment, but figured he might as well try and clean up the little trail of blood he had left behind before the fat doctor came in and chewed his head off.

Limping out into the hallway, Scourge made his way around the ARK, searching for a mop.

* * *

_One Week Later_

"Scourge, are you ready?" Shadow asked over the communicator watch.

"Damn it, Stripes, I'm not a kid! Just give me the signal and I'll go!"

Looking around, Shadow ensured there were no guards in sight before removing the lid to the ventilation shaft. Below him was his target, the chaos emerald.

After discovering it, the Station Square population had determined that the best place to keep the emerald was in a museum. Unfortunately for them, Dr. Eggman had decided it would do better to be in his possession.

"What does he even want this thing for?" Scourge's voice asked over the speaker.

"What do you think, Genius? Probably another take over the world scheme." Shadow dropped from the air vent above, landing directly in front of the cased emerald.

"Come on, Stripes, lighten up! I'm trying to make conversation here!"

"Be quiet! You'll give our positions away if you keep shouting like that."

The mission itself didn't call for stealth, in fact, quite the opposite; they were under orders to make as much of a ruckus as possible. Eggman wanted the world to know he was up to another one of his schemes again. According to him, it was boring without a challenge. On Mobius, there were so many different leagues of Freedom Fighters, but here, it was primitive technology. By giving the humans and heads-up, and occasionally dropping a robot here or there so they could make some technological advancements, they would put up more of a fight. Besides, with Sonic stuck on the ARK there really wouldn't be any challenge.

Regardless, Shadow wanted to grab the emerald before the guards, or worse, a certain white bat who had been trying to recruit him to G.U.N. showed up. "Alright Scourge, have at it." Shadow pulled his fist back, channeling his chaos energy into it, and punched right through the bullet proof glass.

Sirens across the museum began ringing one by one.

In a flash, Shadow grabbed the chaos emerald and took off for the museum's art gallery to complete his second mission objective. Stopping in front of an expensive looking painting, he brought out a spray canister Eggman had given specifically to deliver the message to the people of earth. Covering his mouth and nose, Shadow began spraying directly onto the painting.

"_Your hero won't save you now"_

* * *

Back with Scourge, things were going fantastic. Aside from having smashed almost every display in the museum, he was having a great time playing tag with the Station Square police.

"Come on, you guys are supposed to be the city's best?" Scourge taunted as he ran circles around the cops, coming closer and closer to them as he did, forcing them to fall back until they were huddled together in a group.

Confusion ran wild through the group as the cops found themselves back to back, unable to see let alone stop the green hedgehog.

Scourge suddenly reeled back, stopping about fifty feet away from the dazed cops. He suddenly began sprinting forward again.

Dread passed through the cops as they saw the green hedgehog heading their way. Unfortunately for them, they lacked the ability to move at the speed of sound. In a moment, the cops were scattered across the room as Scourge struck them head-on with a spin-dash.

"Strike!" Scourge cheered as unrolled and dashed into the dinosaur exhibit with back-up cops on his tail.

"_Scourge, it's time to go. Where are you?"_ Shadow's voice came from over the communicator speaker.

"Not now, Stripes. I've got a good streak going here." Scourge responded without stopping.

Eyeing the suspended pterodactyl bones of the gallery, Scourge leapt onto the tail of the tyrannosaurus-rex display and began climbing his way to the top of the extinct creature.

"Get down from there!" The museum curator shouted as he ran into the room, out of breath. "Those are priceless fossils!"

"Well," Scourge gave the curator a sharp-toothed smile. "Let's see how much they'll be worth when I'm done with them!" Using the head of the t-rex as a platform, he jumped into the air once more, landing on the spine of the suspended pterodactyl.

The wires holding the bones up snapped under the sudden weight of the hedgehog causing the whole display to fall from the ceiling, smashing into countless pieces as it hit the floor.

Scourge rolled into a ball as he hit the ground, bouncing right back up into a fighting stance. "Who else wants to have a go?" He shouted to the injured, and mostly frightened, police force.

"Scourge!"

Something pulled on the back of his jacket causing Scourge to lose his balance and fall backwards. On the floor, he had a clear view of Shadow leaning over him, arms crossed in impatience.

"Are you done yet?" Shadow asked, tapping his foot. He was almost tempted to grab the back of Scourge's jacket again for the sole purpose of dragging him out of the museum by it.

"Yeah, I'm good." Scourge stood up, dusting the remaining bone fragments off of his jacket. "Let's get out of here."

"Chaos control!"

* * *

"_Over 100 million dollars' worth of damages incurred last night as Scourge the Hedgehog and an unknown person broke into the Station Square Museum of History and Art. And although paleontologists say they may be able to fix some of the damage caused by the intruders, we have yet to know why the infamous Scourge the Hedgehog chose to target the museum, whom his accomplice was, or why they stole the chaos emerald. Perhaps the most baffling mystery of the night is the ominous message the two left on this priceless painting." _

"_Your hero won't save you now"_

"_This is Scarlett Garcia signing off."_

Tails hit the power button on the remote, turning the news report off.

"Now he's just taunting us." Amy could have smashed the coffee table in half with her bare hands from how angry she was.

"True." Knuckles added, but couldn't help but make a connection. "But think about what that reporter just said. An unknown person stole the chaos emerald, not Scourge. Who do we know has the ability to sneak into a high-security area and likes precious stones?"

"No…" Tails thought it over, but couldn't deny the connection. "You don't think Rouge had something to do with Sonic's disappearance, do you?"

"Probably not, she's not into that kind of thing." Knuckles knew the bat all too well from her countless attempts to steal the master emerald from him. Rouge was willing to stoop to some pretty low levels, but murder-kidnapping was not one of them. "But if she worked with Scourge for that emerald, she might have some clue of his whereabouts, and that's more information than we have now."

"Right!" Amy said excitedly, finally happy to have some form of a lead on Sonic. "So let's go pay Rouge a visit."

"If we go as a group, it'll draw too much attention." Knuckles knew how the people of this planet tended to act every time one of the mobians went out in public. It was nothing but camera flashes and crowds as they had gained a sort of celebrity status in this dimension. "I've dealt with Rouge before, I'll go meet with her tonight at her club."

* * *

Sonic lay motionless on the bed, glaring at Eggman as he carefully cut and removed the stitches running down Sonic's abdomen.

On the other side of the bed stood Shadow, also glaring holes at the fat doctor. He was there mostly to insure Eggman didn't try anything funny, but he was also there trying to figure out what to do. No matter how hard he thought about it, he still had no idea how to approach Sonic about his recent discovery. Somehow, Shadow figured the idea of walking up to Sonic and saying 'Hey, guess what Sonic! We're related. Yeah, you and I were both made up here, so let's try to get along now' wouldn't exactly appease the blue hedgehog. It would leave him with so many questions, questions Shadow didn't have the answer to. At least, not yet.

Choosing to ignore the two hedgehogs, Eggman cut off the last few stitches and handed Sonic a washcloth so he could clean off the suture residue and any blood droplets that remained. "Look at that, you've healed up quite nicely. You don't even have a scar to show for it."

Sonic stopped to give Eggman another glare before continuing his self-grooming.

"Don't give me that look." Eggman kicked the ground at Sonic's bed, using the momentum to wheel himself to a collection of specimen jars on the opposite end of the medical bay. "You should actually be thanking me." He grabbed one of the smaller jars before wheeling his way back to the two hedgehogs. "Do you have any idea what these are?" He handed the jar to Sonic.

Sonic examined the jar with a look of confusion on his face. Inside were several small yellow-green pebbles, ranging from the size of a pin-head to a marble. "Rocks?"

"Close. They're stones. The real question is, what kind of stones?"

"Stones?" Sonic asked, not exactly understanding how some rocks would warrant him expressing gratitude to the mad genius.

"Kidney stones?" Shadow guessed, already having a vague idea of how rocks and surgery could be related to each other.

"Almost. They're gallstones." Eggman looked like he was about to pat himself on the back. "Seems like a certain someone has a diet high in fat."

"That makes two of us." Sonic chuckled under his breath.

Eggman's face fell at the snide comment. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

"But in all seriousness, what are these?" Even Sonic had to wonder how exactly little rocks ended up inside of him.

"Gallstones. They form for a variety of reasons, but judging from the color of yours, they formed because your gallbladder has too much cholesterol. A diet of nothing but chilidogs and junk food will do that to you."

"Why thank you, doctor." Sonic responded sarcastically, though secretly happy to have an answer. "How much do I owe you?" He tacked on playfully.

"This one's on the house." Eggman joked back.

"I don't suppose you did this out of the goodness of your heart and are planning to send me off on my now?" Though his tone still held an air of playfulness to it, Sonic was genuinely hoping this was the case, even though his instincts told him better. The stitches may have been out, but he was still full of pain-killers and antibiotics, leaving him mostly groggy and in no condition to run.

"Oh, you're more than welcome to run free as you please." Eggman began, raising Sonic's hopes. "As long as you agree to join me."

Should Sonic's hopes have materialized, they would have crashed to the ground in an impact strong enough to wipe out the dinosaurs. "Very funny, Eggman. My answer is no."

"You're physically okay to move around now, but I suggest you get comfortable. Until you agree to join the Eggman empire, you won't be going anywhere for a long time."

Sonic raised an eyebrow at the threat, almost smirking. "You going to throw me in a dungeon or something?"

Eggman stood up, removing the latex gloves from his hands and disposing of them in a bio-waste bin. "No need for that here."

"What?"

"I'm sure Shadow would be more than happy to fill you in on everything."

At the mention of his name, Shadow snapped out of his thoughts and back to reality. "What?"

"I'll be in my workshop if you need anything, or change your mind."

"Unlikely." Sonic scoffed as he watched Eggman leave through the automatic sliding doors. As soon as he was gone, Sonic turned his attention to Shadow. "So, are we busting out, or are you really into this 'helping' Eggman thing?"

"I…" Shadow was at a loss for words. Part of him wanted to get Sonic out of here, knowing Eggman was lying through his teeth. If Sonic was an ultimate life form, the gall stones shouldn't have been a problem. Sure, Sonic had a lousy diet, but never once had he complained about any sort of stomach pain. Shadow theorized they were a common occurrence in Sonic, but his advanced bodily functions simply took care of them. Eggman had most likely cut Sonic open to get a look at his insides and grabbed the stones as he closed Sonic up to cover his true intentions. Still, it probably wasn't a good idea to get Sonic so worked up while he was still recovering. "I don't think it's really possible to break out of here, per se."

Sonic frowned and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'not possible'?" When Shadow didn't respond, Sonic felt his anger rising. "Where exactly is 'here?'"

It never occurred to Shadow that the medical bay was windowless. It had been the only room Sonic had been in since he brought him in a week ago, and as far as he knew, neither Eggman nor Scourge had shared details about where they were.

"Nevermind." Sonic gripped the edge of the hospital bed and threw his legs over the edge, landing on the ground, and standing up for the first time since his surgery. "I'll just figure it out myself."

Shadow watched as his younger brother took a few shaky steps before letting go of the metal railing and walking steadily on his own. He followed close behind, just in case Sonic lost his balance.

It didn't take long for Sonic to learn exactly where he was. As soon as he stepped past the sliding doors into the hallway, the massive windows lining the hall revealed exactly where he was. Sonic gasped as he walked up to the window and gazed down at the planet below them. "We're on…the ARK?"

"Yes. We are."

"Why? Why are we here? What is Eggman doing that he came back to this place?"

"I don't know." Shadow confessed. "Probably just hiding up here. You and I already destroyed the eclipse cannon the last time we were here, so it's not like he can use it to blow up the planet."

"Shadow, you don't know what he's up to, but you're willing to help him. What if he figured out a way to fix the cannon? What if he tries something else to destroy the planet? Are you going to stand by and let him do it?"

"Sonic, I made a promise to protect the planet and I fully intend to stand by it. I am here for only one reason. I need information about my past and Eggman is the only person with that. I'm not here for revenge and my loyalties certainly do not lie with the Eggman Empire. You know that."

"I thought I knew a lot about you, Shadow." Sonic shot back, not even bothering to look at Shadow as he continued to watch the planet Earth below. "But now…it feels like you're just another badnik."

Shadow was slightly hurt by Sonic's words due to his newly discovered connection to him, not that he'd ever show it. He was still at a loss for how to break the news of the blue hedgehog's actual origins to him and having Sonic upset at him was not making it any easier.

"If you're not going to help me get out of here, leave. I need time to think up an escape plan."

Not knowing what to do, Shadow simply walked away. Perhaps what they both needed at the moment was some time to think.

* * *

**Yeah, I'm really regretting writing these chapters out of order. **

**On the bright side, making adjustments to plot is easier this way! **

**I hoped you enjoyed this, and as always, review please! **

**I ordered my Halloween costume today! I'm going to be Carmen Sandiego this year, I can't wait!**


	5. Enter Agent Rouge

**My animation studies suddenly become fascinating when I'm supposed to be doing something besides them…like writing this fic. **

**Tails parents make an appearance in this fic, but as I said before, I've taken their names from Archie canon, so no complaining about that. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Enter Agent Rouge

Making his way through the crowd, Knuckles pushed his way through the much taller humans until he finally reached his destination. If he had to give credit to Rouge for one thing, it would be that she certainly knew how to throw a party.

While the others had stuck to using the Mystic Ruins and Tails' workshop as home, Rouge had gone out of her way to open a casino and night club, the Club Rouge. The humans came at first simply because she was a mobian whom did not make public appearances often and they wanted a chance to see her. They kept coming back after the great time they would have with all of the events Rouge would constantly have in her club.

He hated every part of it. Knuckles only even entered Club Rouge is he had no other choice. To him, the music was too loud, the humans too obnoxious, the lights too flashy, and the owner too much a pain in his rear to want to see every day.

Spotting Rouge, Knuckles pushed his way to the bar.

Rouge floated behind the counter, preparing drinks for her guests and conversing with some of the patrons. Though she had a bartender on her payroll, and a whole staff to run the place for that matter, she still chose to do some minor work in her club every now and then when she wasn't saving the world with G.U.N.

Finally arriving, Knuckles seated himself as he hoped onto one of the barstools.

Upon noticing her newest patron, Rouge turned her attention to Knuckles. She gave him a wink, as she served the drink she had just prepared to someone who was clearly on their last drink. "Hey, big guy." She said in her usual flirtatious matter as she drifted to Knuckles, settling down slightly so they were eye to eye from behind the bar. "What can I get you?"

"Some aspirin. Why is the music so loud?" He practically had to shout to her.

"It's not loud, you're just a grumpy old man."

"Old? We're the same age!"

Rouge scoffed in a playful manner. "Are we talking in spirit or body?"

Gritting his teeth to keep his temper under control, Knuckles got straight to business. "Is there some place more…private we could speak?" It probably wouldn't be a good idea if the humans learned their great hero, Sonic, had gone missing. They did have a tendency to panic over the smallest things.

"Oh, Knuckles." Rouge continued to mercilessly taunt him, placing her hand over her chest as if she were taken aback. "I couldn't possibly now, I'm working. But if you really want, you can always meet me later tonight in my room…"

Having enough, he slammed his fists on the bar, shocking the humans around them. "Damn it, Rouge, this is serious!"

Rouge's dropped her act quickly, frowning at the red echidna. "Alright, alright, don't scare my customers away." She looked past Knuckles, onto the Club floor. Getting the attention of one of her attendants, she motioned for the young woman to come over. "Find Carl and tell him to take over the bar for me. I have something I need to attend to."

As soon as the young man returned to his post as bartender, the two mobians made their way to the back of the club and entered a door marked "Employees Only."

The back of the club was much quieter, sound proof as a matter of fact, considering it was where Rouge stayed. The club may have been open all night long, but even she needed sleep. And her employees needed a place to relax when they were on break.

Knuckles followed Rouge to her own private office at the very far end of the hall. He took a seat in the chair directly across from the desk as Rouge closed and locked the door before shutting the blinds.

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" She asked as she seated herself across from the guardian. "I can phone the chef and have him bring something up for you."

"I'm fine, Rouge." He responded coolly, finding it easier to control his nerves when there wasn't music blasting so loudly.

"Alright, so let's get to it. What's going on?"

"It's Sonic. No one has seen him in two weeks. We contacted everyone who came with us here from Mobius, and no one has any idea where he is. To make matters worse, Scourge showed up, claiming Sonic was dead."

Now Rouge's interest was really piqued. "And you don't think he really killed him?" She had experience working with Scourge. She knew he was capable and willing to end a life to get what he wanted, but there seemed to be no motive in killing Sonic. Scourge had nothing to gain from it; in fact, it would put him at a loss. Rouge knew that Scourge liked to purposely aggravate Sonic when he was bored. He wouldn't kill his main source of entertainment. Yet at the same time, she knew the green hedgehog had to be up to something. He usually came in the club at least once or twice a week to get free drinks, not that he ever did. It always ended in the same way. He would make a ruckus and she would have to go out on the club floor and kick him out herself. He had not showed up for about two weeks, fitting the timeline of Sonic's disappearance.

"No. Sonic wouldn't go down that easy. Besides, we haven't found his body yet, so we can't rule of the possibility that he's still alive."

"So what do you have to work with?" Rouge asked.

"Quite frankly…nothing."

"Nothing?" That wasn't what she wanted to hear. Both she and Knuckles were expert treasure hunters, but no amount of skill could help you when you have no leads or clues. "Well, you came to me for a reason. What is it you wanted from me?"

"Well…you have access to resources. Resources none of us have. Resources we could use to find Sonic."

Rouge knew the echidna was referencing her connections with G.U.N. "So you basically want supplies and information from me?"

"Yes. What do you say?"

Rouge was silent for a moment as she thought it over. "Alright. Sonic's saved my behind on several occasions, so I'll just consider this favor a repayment for those times. Count me in."

"Thanks. I'll let the others know. We'll keep you updated on anything we find." Knuckles stood up, preparing to leave.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay for a drink? On me?" Rouge offered once more.

"Not tonight, Rouge."

* * *

_Mobius: 15 Years Ago_

_Crystal clear skies spread out overhead as two foxes, Rosemary and Amadeus Prower, hiked their way up the mountain. _

_Amadeus had taken the day off of work so the two of them could step out of the city for a while and enjoy the fresh air. It had been so long since they had had a chance to relax, but with the Great War having ended not too long ago, there would be plenty of time for that in the future. "Right this way, my dear." He held out his hand to his wife to help her over some of the brush. _

_Taking his hand, Rosemary pulled herself over the fallen plants. _

_Together, they hiked in silence, enjoying the sound of birds chirping instead of warning sirens and distant explosions. _

_As they continued to trek upwards, Rosemary suddenly lost her footing. With a shout, she fell forward, sliding down the side of the rocky mountain. Stopping her descent by crashing into something solid, she found herself in a tattered heap under the cover of the trees._

"_Rosemary!" Amadeus shouted. "Rosemary, are you alright?!"He took off down the same path she fell, being careful not to fall himself. "Just hang on, I'll be right there!"_

_At the bottom of the mountain, Rosemary rubbed the back of her head, having struck it pretty hard upon landing. What did she hit? It felt like he had rolled into a wall of solid steel. Turning her attention to the mass of dirt behind her, she noticed some of the caked off mud had broken off from the impact. Underneath, she saw what was indeed solid steel. _

_She wondered what it could be. A leftover remnant of the war? An abandoned vehicle? Ignoring the pain she was feeling, Rosemary reached over and began removing the mud. "Amadeus, there is something down here!" _

_Amadeus jumped the few remaining feet to his wife, landing in a crouch. "Are you alright? Are you bleeding?"_

"_I'm fine," she said, still pulling the dirt of the metallic mass. "Come help me, there's something under here."_

_Though he wanted to tend to her scrapes, Amadeus could see Rosemary was too focused. Sitting beside her, he too began to scrape away, revealing a sort of cylindrical pod. _

_Within minutes, much of the dirt had been removed from the top of the pod, exposing a clouded glass cover. _

_Cupping her hands around her eyes, Rosemary peeked in. "I think there's something in here. What is it?"_

"_Only one way to find out." Using his sleeve, Amadeus wiped the glass in an attempt to clear it. _

_Once the view cleared, Rosemary let out a gasp. "It's a child! There is a child trapped in there!" A new desperation overtook her as she attempted to find a way to open the pod. _

_Drawing his sword from his sheath, Amadeus stuck it into the crease between the glass and metal of the pod. Together, the two foxes pushed down on the sword, forcing the lid of the pod open. _

_A cloud of dust arose as the lid slowly opened. _

_Reaching in, Rosemary picked up the small child. _

_In her arms was a small blue hedgehog, no older than three. He stirred a bit in her arms, as if having been awoken from a nap. _

"_Oh my goodness." Amadeus observed the child. "Is he alright?"_

"_We have to get him to a hospital now! Who knows how long he's been out here! He could be severely dehydrated!" _

_The blue hedgehog opened his eyes, searching for the source of the voices he was hearing. _

_Noticing he had awoken, Rosemary turned her attention to the child once more. "Are you alright, sweetie? What's your name?"_

_The child did not respond, continuing to stare at her._

"_What's that on his wrist?" Amadeus asked, noticing a sort of metallic bracelet on the child's arm. Rotating the bracelet on the hedgehog, he read the inscription aloud. "Sonic."_

"_We can worry about that later." She had to get him into the city now to receive the proper medical attention he needed._

_The two foxes ran non-stop, back to the city. As soon as they entered the hospital grounds, they continued running, heading straight for the emergency room. _

"_We need help!" Rosemary practically gasped to the nurse at the desk, trying to speak and regain her breath at the same time. "This child needs medical attention. We found him out in the wilderness and he is unresponsive!"_

_Right away, doctors entered the room and took the small blue hedgehog away on a stretcher. _

"_The doctors will do everything they can for him." The nurse told the foxes calmly and professionally. "In the meantime, you can help us by answering some questions."_

"_Alright."_

"_Do you know the child's name?"_

"_Uh…" Rosemary recalled the bracelet around the child's wrist. "Sonic. I believe his name is Sonic."_

"_Okay." The nurse scrawled the information down on a clipboard. _

"_Did he have any injuries when you found him?"_

"_No, none that we could physically see."_

"_Age?"_

"_We really don't know that…"_

"_Hmm…" the nurse though aloud as she looked through the form. "I suppose you won't be able to answer a lot of these questions. It's alright. You can go ahead and be seated in the waiting room. We'll call you when you can go in and see…Sonic."_

_The two took a seat as directed by the nurse and waited. _

"_Do you think he'll be okay?" Rosemary asked her husband._

"_I'm not sure." He answered honestly. "But I'm sure he's a tough little scamp. He'll pull through."_

* * *

_It didn't take long before a doctor came out to speak to the two of them. _

"_I have incredible news for you." The doctor said, smiling. "Sonic is in perfect health, amazing even. His vitals are stable, his temperature is perfect, and he's not in the least bit dehydrated or malnourished."_

"_Really?" Rosemary asked in surprise. _

"_Yes. He's a perfectly healthy hoglet." _

_Amadeus relaxed, his worry dissipating. "That's quite a relief." _

"_Indeed, you gave us quite a scare when you came in here with him. He must not have been out in the mountains long. He probably got separated from his parents."_

"_So what will happen to him now?" Rosemary couldn't bear the thought of a child as young as Sonic being lost and alone._

"_We'll contact the police to see if anyone has filed a missing child report matching Sonic's description. Until his parents can be found, the city will probably make arrangements for Sonic to stay with a foster family. We've called a social worker and she's on her way now. We'll let her know Sonic's situation when she arrives so she can begin searching for a family to host him."_

"_Actually…" Rosemary turned to her husband._

_Already knowing what was on her mind, and in agreement, he turned back to the doctor. "You can tell her you've found one already."_

* * *

Scourge leaned back in his armchair, flipping the page to the magazine in his lap. He wasn't much of a reader himself, hence the fact he picked out a magazine in a library filled with books, but the pictures were pretty cool to look at.

The metallic doors slid open as a blue blur ran past the green hedgehog, the force of his speed sending a burst of air to his face, turning the page of his magazine in the process.

Not phased at all, Scourge turned the page of his magazine back, continuing to read the captions underneath the pictures.

A few seconds later, the blue blur returned, coming in from the opposite direction and causing Scourge's magazine to flip pages again.

With a sigh, Scourge closed the magazine in his lap and set it aside on the table beside his armchair. This had been going on for twenty minutes straight. Sonic was just running back and forth nonstop, and it was making it hard to do anything. "Blue…"

Sonic ran past him.

"Blue…"

Sonic ran past him the other way once more.

"Blue!" Scourge stuck his leg out, tripping Sonic as he came back into the library. "Relax, will you?!"

"Relax!" Sonic picked himself up and faced his green counterpart. "I'm going crazy in here!" He may have been free to roam the ARK, but it turned out he only had access to about half the station. He learned this through mostly trial and error, approaching a door to see if it would open for him or not. Eggman must have been trying to keep him from reaching anything that could help him potentially escape, or he would have given him complete access, like he did with Scourge and Shadow. Unable to cope with his frustration, Sonic rolled up into a ball and began bouncing around the library. "I need to run!" He shouted as Scourge ducked to avoid him. "I've been stuck in that medical bay for so long!"

"Then just go tell the fat man you'll work for him." Scourge leaned back into his arm chair.

Sonic stopped in front of Scourge. "I'm not going to work for him! In case you haven't noticed, I'm a good guy!"

"Just do a bait and switch. Say you'll work for him then make a run for it."

"In case you haven't noticed, that man's an evil genius. You really think he hasn't thought I'd try something like that? He'd probably stick a tracking device on me or take someone hostage to make sure I don't disobey any of his orders." Exasperated, Sonic dropped himself into the armchair across from Scourge.

Both ideas were actually on Eggman's list of potential ways to get Sonic to work for him, but Scourge figured he better keep his mouth shut and not freak out the blue hedgehog even more. "Here," He reached over to the box below his arm chair and grabbed a can before tossing it to Sonic. "Unwind for a bit."

Sonic caught the can, checking to see what it was. Beer. "I don't need to unwind!" He tossed the drink into the library's garbage can from his armchair. "I need to find a way out of here!" In a flash, he was out the door again.

"That was a perfectly good beer you know!" Scourge could have walked to the garbage can and gotten it himself, but that would mean having to get out of his chair. With another sigh, he picked up the magazine he had earlier and placed it open, over his face, hoping to fall asleep.

* * *

**And that's chapter five! Wheeeeeeee!**

**Yes, I changed canon. It's a fanfiction, roll with it. **

**Review please! **


	6. Doctor's Orders

**I'm slipping on the ice, just slipping on the ice…**

**I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

Chapter Six: Doctor's Orders

"Topaz, I've got a mission for you."

Topaz looked upwards to her mobian partner with a questioning glance. "I didn't receive any memos about an upcoming mission." It was much too soon to be going out on another as she was currently at her desk, filling out the debriefing paperwork about her last mission. She had not even been back a full twenty four hours yet!

"This is sort of a…personal favor for a friend."

"Rouge, I'm not helping you steal jewelry."

Rouge cracked a smile, resisting the urge to laugh. Her partner knew her too well, but for once, stealing precious stones was not on her personal agenda. "It's a little more important than that. Tell you what, why don't you take a break? Let me treat you to some coffee and we can talk this over."

Topaz supposed a break wouldn't hurt. "Alright then."

* * *

"Now, what's so important that you came to me for help?" Topaz sipped her coffee, genuinely curious for an answer.

"It's about everyone's favorite hero, Sonic."

"What about Sonic?"

"He's…gone missing."

"Missing?" Topaz asked in surprise. "Are you sure?" The press would be all over this if they found out.

"For the most part. No one's seen him in weeks and it's been awful quiet lately. Too quiet."

"You think Eggman had something to do with his disappearance?"

"Who else could it be?" It was no surprise Eggman wanted Sonic out of his way. Even if it was Eggman who was behind Sonic's disappearance, Rouge knew this wouldn't have been the first time he had attempted an ambush on the blue speedster.

"Okay." Topaz followed everything Rouge was saying, but there was still one question on her mind. "What exactly do you want from me?" She had no information about Sonic's alleged disappearance. "Do you want me to help you look for him?"

"Not quite." With her and the others from Mobius looking for Sonic, there would be enough people searching. If too many people got involved, someone was bound to get suspicious and wonder who/what exactly they were looking for. "I can't say for sure now, but in the future, I might need your help accessing certain resources."

"Resources? What kind of resources?"

"Information and maybe technology. You have more clearance for these certain kinds of things than I do."

"Why don't you just take this up with the president directly? He loves having you in G.U.N., you know he'd be more than willing to give you clearance for anything."

"I know that, but we're trying to keep this low profile." After the whole ARK and Project Shadow fiasco coming to light, it seemed the newspapers were doing everything in their power to stick their noses in government business. Rouge didn't understand or care for the politics of this planet, but she was smart enough to know paranoia and fear were bad motivators.

"I understand. And I think I know how to start."

"Let's hear it."

"Well, let's say hypothetically, Sonic was kidnapped. At some point during the struggle, I'm sure he might have tried getting away by running at his top speed, meaning he must have broken the sound barrier, making a sonic boom. We can use G.U.N. satellites to see if there have been any sonic booms around Station Square."

"So you'll help then?"

"You mean work off the clock for no pay without any regards for social or romantic obligations I may have?"

Rouge raised an eyebrow. "Binge watching crime dramas with a frozen dinner on a Friday night does not count as a social or romantic obligation."

Topaz sighed. Rouge knew her all too well. "Yes, I'll help."

* * *

Shadow set the journal pages down on the desk in his personal dormitory. He had read through them several times already, to the point where he had nearly memorized them word-for word, but he still found himself looking over them again and again. He was feeling so many different things, it was intolerable.

Frustration; he didn't know how to approach Sonic about their relation. Happiness; he still had family. Anger; Eggman could have sent a bunch of robots with Scourge to capture Sonic, but no, he sent him instead. There was no way Sonic would trust anything he said after bringing him up here to be trapped.

There was no point in pulling his quills out over it. He was just going to have to work with what he had.

Standing up, Shadow folded the journal pages up and put them away in a drawer in the desk. Pushing the chair in neatly, he exited the small room and made his way down the hall, in search of Sonic.

Hopefully his brother would be in a better mood, but he couldn't really blame him if he wasn't. He was only barely released from the medical bay, so Sonic's pain might cause him to be a little more irritable than usual.

Entering what was once the staff lounge to the ARK scientists, Shadow spotted Scourge sprawled out on the couch, watching television. "Where's Sonic?" He asked, knowing Scourge had probably attempted to bother him at some point in the day.

"Give it a moment." The green hedgehog responded without taking his eyes of the program. Surprisingly, the ARK was able to pick up television signals from earth. For equipment that was fifty years old, Scourge had to admit it was pretty impressive.

Shadow was confused, but as Scourge said, only for a moment. In an instant, Sonic ran past the two hedgehogs in a flash of blue.

"He's been doing that for about…" Scourge looked to the clock on the wall. "Four hours now." The only reason Scourge was watching television was because of Sonic's constant running. It was impossible to do anything else without the whiplash or the blue speedster himself getting in the way. Thanks to Sonic's speed, he never really noticed when he passed in front of the television.

"Four hours?" Shadow asked in disbelief. Sonic was still recovering from surgery! Four hours of strenuous running was only going to destroy his insides. It wouldn't kill him per se, but it sure would put him in a lot of pain and significantly slow down the healing process. Shadow knew how stubborn Sonic was. His brother probably was in a lot of pain, but was just choosing to ignore it.

Sonic ran past them once more.

Having seen him come and go, Shadow had a good idea of how long it would take Sonic to make his way back to them. He remained where he was for a few moments, counting down the seconds. In the exact moment the door opened, Shadow stepped in Sonic's path, bracing for impact.

Running too fast to stop suddenly, Sonic found himself crashing directly into Shadow.

Having been prepared for him, Shadow only slid back a few feet, holding Sonic by his shoulders. "What do you think you're doing?!" He shouted at him, resisting the urge to shake some sense into him.

"Going crazy, what does it look like?!" Sonic shouted back. He wasn't exactly having the time of his life on board the space station.

"You're supposed to be taking it easy. You want to end up in the medical bay again?" Shadow could see the exhaustion on Sonic's face. He was pushing himself beyond his weakened limits.

Sonic was not aware of just how tired he really was. With his runner's high waning, he felt himself getting heavier. Everything hit him in that moment as he suddenly felt dizzy.

Noticing Sonic's weakening posture, Shadow immediately helped him sit on the couch, besides his sprawled out counterpart. "You need to rest."

Sonic's anger flared up immediately. The last thing he wanted was to see Shadow concerned about him. He was the whole reason he was in pain and losing his mind. "Get away from me!" Sonic knocked Shadow's hands off his shoulders. He stood up, only to find his knees weak and his body shaking. He collapsed back onto the couch.

"Listen," Shadow tried to hide his irritation at Sonic's sheer refusal to cooperate. "You just sit here and I'll get you something to eat." Not wanting to hear anything from Sonic at the moment, Shadow turned his back and left the lounge.

Still lying on the couch, Scourge watched as Sonic curled into himself, lying down opposite him. The blue hedgehog looked unusually pale, as if he were about to vomit.

Sonic closed his eyes, trying to make the spinning sensation he was feeling stop.

"Want me to read you a bedtime story, blue?"

With a swift quick from Sonic, Scourge found himself face-first on the floor.

* * *

Scourge dusted off his jacket as he left the lounge. He knew when he wasn't wanted. That and he didn't want to have to deal with the vomit if Sonic really did throw up.

It was pitiful, how Shadow was trying so hard to 'take care' of Sonic. He could hear him in the nearby kitchen, hastily throwing something together.

Still bored after a whole day of doing nothing, Scourge entered the kitchen. "You know you're wasting your time, Stripes." He said as he watched Shadow sloppily finish making a sandwich.

"I'm not going to sit there and watch him starve himself." Shadow picked up the plate and turned around, passing Scourge, about to leave.

"Don't you think you're taking this 'big brother' thing too seriously?"

Shadow stopped in his tracks. He turned to Scourge, meeting the green hedgehog's taunting gaze. "What did you say?"

"I said, don't you think you're taking this 'big brother' thing too seriously?"

Shadow glared at the green hedgehog silently, not wanting to give anything away. For all he knew, Scourge was bluffing and happened to just be joking. He set the sandwich down on the counter beside him.

"You think I don't know?" Scourge asked with his usual arrogant smirk. "You should really consider locking that desk of yours. Who knows what could get into there!"

In one swift move, Shadow appeared in front of Scourge. He swung his arm forward, punching the green hedgehog into the steel wall of the kitchen.

Scourge landed with a loud thud, falling to the floor after impact. He grabbed his abdomen in pain, rubbing the spot where a bruise was sure to form. "What the hell, Stripes!?"

Shadow stormed over to Scourge. Without any regard for his state, Shadow grabbed the green hedgehog by his jacket lapels, pulling him up to meet eye-to-eye. "Listen here." He growled. "I don't care that you know, but I don't want to see you anywhere near Sonic. Do you hear me?"

"Why?" Scourge wasn't even trying to hide the smug look on his face. He was getting the reaction he wanted out of Shadow. It was always fun to watch him get worked up as it so rarely happened. "Haven't you told him yet? I figured that was the reason he hated you so much." Shadow's silence only confirmed what he thought. "So you didn't tell him…"

"And not a word about it is to come out of your mouth. Understand?" Shadow shook Scourge again for good measure.

Scourge had never intended to blab, mostly because he knew Sonic would never believe him. Sure, he could have just grabbed the pages and taken them straight to his blue counterpart, but it was more fun to watch Shadow awkwardly attempt to converse and interact with Sonic. "Don't worry." She said, shrugging his shoulders. "My lips are sealed." And for once in his life, he was serious.

If looks could kill, Shadow was sure he'd be holding Scourge's lifeless body in his hands. "I'm serious about this, Scourge!"

"Want me to pinky swear?" Scourge shoved his hand in Shadow's face.

Shadow let go of the jacket, dropping Scourge. Ignoring the heap of green hedgehog, he picked up the sandwich he made and left the kitchen.

* * *

**I love writing Scourge. He's my favourite character.**

**Review please! **


	7. Concussions

**Alright, chapter 7. Hope you guys are loving this!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

Chapter Seven: Concussions

"Well done, boys!" Eggman's malicious smile graced his face as he collected the various supplies the two hedgehogs had collected/stolen for him, scattering them across his workshop table.

Shadow looked around the workshop, which doubled as the heart of the ARK. Eggman had practically spent all his time up here from what he could gather, building something. What exactly was the megalomaniac building though? He took comfort in the fact that the eclipse cannon had all but blown off the last time he tried to use it, so the planet below seemed safe.

"So…" Scourge began, breaking the silence. "Are we good?"

"What?" Eggman turned his attention away from his new supplies back to the two hedgehogs. "Oh, right, yeah. You're free to go."

Not wanting to stick around for Eggman to change his mind and assign him to another mission, Scourge scurried out of the workshop.

Shadow on the other hand, chose to stay a little longer, observing the doctor at work. Not much for robotics himself, he couldn't tell by sight alone what all the parts were or even what they were for. "Doctor," He might as well, he had nothing to lose. "Why do you need these? What are you building?"

"I'm just recreating a little device I had back on Mobius. The people here are far behind in terms of technology, so of course I have to make do with what I can find, but I think it's going well."

Shadow frowned. Eggman was giving him a run-around, answering his question without giving him any real information. He would have to figure this out later on his own, maybe find some blue prints Eggman left lying around. Then again, with an IQ of over three hundred, he probably had them all in his mind. Why leave an unnecessary paper trail?

"Actually," Eggman interrupted Shadow's thoughts. "I have a mission for you Shadow. Just you. I don't trust Scourge with this one, it requires a certain level of stealth."

"So I can finally throw him into orbit?" Shadow tacked on. It's not like he couldn't perform any task Eggman assigned to him solo. Why keep the extra baggage?

"Errr, no. I still need him, just not now. Besides, there's a journal page in it for you." Now he really had Shadow's attention. "It's simple. Just get me another chaos emerald. You're going to have to look for it this time though, I have no idea where it is."

Yes, Shadow knew how easily the chaos emeralds tended to get lost or scattered. At least he had some incentive to search for it now. It's not like he had much to do up on the ARK anyways. He could always try to spend some time with Sonic, but that would have to come later. He would just check up on him for the meantime.

Heading out, Shadow made his way to the door, only to be stopped by Eggman's comment.

"You'll find Sonic in one of the empty rooms. I believe he finally wore himself out to sleep."

Shadow could hear the teasing undertone in Eggman's words, jabbing at the fact he knew exactly where the black and red hedgehog would be going.

With nothing more than a glare directed at the Doctor who was not even looking his way, Shadow left the workshop in search of his brother.

* * *

Shadow opened yet another dormitory in his search for Sonic, which had been taking much longer than originally expected. It didn't help that the ARK had enough rooms for a staff of over one hundred scientists. Finally finding him, Shadow stepped into the room quietly.

Sonic lay sprawled out on the single bed on his stomach, sleeping the sleep of the dead.

Shadow approached the blue hedgehog silently, taking care not to wake him. He was happy to finally see Sonic getting some rest. All that running he had been doing had probably slowed down the healing process significantly.

Just as he was about to leave, convinced Sonic was okay and breathing, Shadow stopped. He hadn't noticed it in the dark of the room, but now that it held his attention, he could clearly see it.

There were bruises all over the front of Sonic's face and forehead.

Shocked, Shadow wondered what had happened. Did Sonic get into a fight with Scourge? Did he lose consciousness somewhere? If he did, how did he end up in one of the dormitories? Did Scourge dump him here?

Not wanting to wake Sonic, Shadow left the dorm, heading straight for the computer room.

Once there, he wasted no time accessing the ARK's security footage from earlier in the day. Following Sonic from the start of his day, Shadow fast forwarded through the tape.

There was nothing out of the ordinary, just Sonic running around for hours on end, then stopping for a bit after Scourge crashed into him. There was no scuffle, with Sonic simply getting up and continuing his sprint, leaving Scourge in the dust. The collision may have been at high-speed, but it wouldn't explain all the bruises on his brother.

He continued to forward the tape until he finally found the cause of Sonic's injuries.

He couldn't resist, the urge was too strong. Shadow slammed his palm directly into his face.

Sonic was repeatedly spin-dashing directly into one of the steel doors, trying to break it down. Regardless of how hard he crashed, or the fact that he was clearly in pain from it as could be seen by him continuously rubbing his head and wiping away the small trickles of blood, he simply kept on going.

Shadow watched the footage until Sonic gave up. The blue hedgehog wobbled around a bit, crashing into a wall as he attempted to make his way down the hall. It was then he entered the dorm, the same one he was currently in, to sleep.

Shadow immediately jumped up from his seat, skating as fast as he could to Sonic's room. If that idiot has been slamming his head into a steel door long enough to make himself dizzy, he had most likely given himself a concussion. Not only that, he had gone directly to sleep after sustaining a head injury, putting him at risk for falling into a coma.

No longer caring about how much noise he was making, Shadow skated right into the room. "Sonic, wake up!" He shouted as he grabbed the sleeping hedgehog, shaking him awake rather roughly.

Sonic awoke with a shout, immediately jumping up into a defensive position. He brought his hand up in front of his body, ready to strike. When he saw only Shadow standing before him, he lowered his guard with a frown. "Shadow? What's going on?"

"Are you okay?"

Sonic raised a brow in confusion. "What?"

"I asked, are you okay? How do you feel? Are you dizzy? Can you see straight? How is your vision?" Shadow listed all the symptoms of a concussion he knew off the top of his head.

"My vision is…fine?" Sonic answered, not entirely sure what Shadow was babbling on about. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because you're an idiot!" Shadow moved his hand forward sharply, jabbing Sonic directly in the forehead, hitting a bruise. "Explain this!"

Sonic winced, rubbing the ache that was left on his head after the jab. "I crashed into a door that wouldn't open."

"So your solution is to just keep on slamming head first into it!?" Shadow said, bewildered, wondering how Sonic's thought process worked exactly.

"Well unless you're going to hand me a chaos emerald, I'd like to hear what your great idea to get the door open."

Shadow huffed, grabbing Sonic's arm and dragging him out of the room. "Come on!"

"Where are we going?" Sonic asked, allowing Shadow to drag him out of the dorm and into the hallway.

"The Doctor needs to have a look at you. Your 'great idea' has probably left you with some serious head trauma." Shadow stopped as he felt Sonic tug away from his grip.

"No way!" Sonic took a step away from Shadow. "You think I'm going to see that psycho after he cut me open like that?"

"You had a gallstone, Sonic. You needed that procedure." Shadow lied through his teeth. He was well aware it was an unnecessary procedure, but right now he needed to get Sonic some medical attention. "You saw the stone yourself."

"I didn't ask him to take it out! I'm not going!"

Shadow growled in frustration. "Just stop being stubborn!" He moved forward to grab Sonic's arm once more only to have the blue hedgehog move farther away from him.

In the blink of an eye, Sonic had taken down the halls of the ARK once more, running as far away from the black and red hedgehog as he could get.

"Sonic!" Shadow took off after him.

* * *

Rouge trekked forward while watching the screen of her laptop. Not too far behind, the rest of the mobians followed her tracks. "According to the satellite tracking, here's where the first sonic boom occurred."

They may have needed a satellite to find the sonic boom, but they certainly didn't need one to see the results of it.

There were two sets scorch marks on the ground where the hedgehogs had taken off at super speed. Several of the trees were fallen over, some still standing with massive holes in them, unfortunate victims to missed attacks.

"With a second sonic boom having occurred only a few second afterwards…" Rouge began.

"We can assume Scourge chased off after him." Knuckles finished.

Tails and Amy continued to search the area in hopes of finding a clue, a lead, anything that could tell them where Sonic was or if he was even alive. Aside from the clear signs of a struggle, there was nothing.

"Where was the next one?" Tails asked, eager to continue the search. If there was nothing here, they were only wasting time.

"There were actually several. All around us." Rouge turned the laptop around so the group could see it. "Going out as far as one hundred miles. They must have been running around in circles."

"We can cover more ground if we split up." Knuckles pointed to the map on the laptop. "Rouge and I will take the farthest points. We can get there faster by flying over the mountains. You two go around and follow the sonic booms closer to Station Square."

"Right!" Tails spun his said namesakes around and flew off alongside Amy.

Rouge closed the laptop and put it away on a case slung across her shoulders. She spread out her wings and took off into the sky with the guardian close by.

"You can see the fight alright." Knuckles could easily pick out the trail of shredded grass and destroyed foliage among the rest of the forest.

"There!" Rouge pointed to a clearing where the trail ended. Both she and Knuckles circled in lower, dropping their flight once they were low enough to the ground.

"Great, another dead end." Knuckles growled.

Although there were signs of a fight, they ended nowhere. No more scorch tracks or even footprints leaving the clearing. No more destroyed greenery or even a shred of rubber that could be traced back to Sonic's shoes.

"It's like they…just disappeared."

Knuckles knew exactly how two high-speed hedgehogs could disappear off the face of a planet. "Chaos control. Scourge must have taken Sonic elsewhere."

"Taken him?" Rouge asked. "What could Scourge possibly want with Sonic? And how would you even know that, assuming he's still alive?"

"You see a body anywhere?"

She couldn't really say she did. "Even then, that's assuming the others don't find him or that Scourge didn't just finish him off elsewhere." Rouge gave a sigh at the fruitless results of the search. "We can scout out Sonic's favorite spots and hangout, maybe he really is just on a personal vacation."

"We've been doing that every day for the past two weeks!" Knuckles slammed his fists into a nearby tree. "And it's not working! No matter how many times we search, we find nothing!"

"Then it's time for a change in tactics. We're going to keep searching, but instead of looking for Sonic, we're going to start looking for the only lead we do have. Scourge."

* * *

"Just follow the light." Eggman moved the otoscope in his hands in several different places as he observed Sonic's reaction rate.

Frowning, Sonic moved his eyes along with the light. He had been in the medical bay with Eggman and Shadow for the past hour, performing various tasks and undergoing examinations to prove he didn't have any brain damage or any serious head injuries from his little stunt earlier. According to Fatso, he was doing a "full neurological test" which basically meant he was checking his vision, hearing, balance, and for any unusual swelling. "Are we done yet?" He grew impatient as the tests never seemed to end.

Shadow had caught up to him and defeated him quite easily considering he was still groggy from his nap and running on empty. The black hedgehog had literally dragged him by his arms into the medical bay as he fought, kicking and screaming, trying to claw his way free.

"Everything seems to be in working order." Eggman turned the otoscope off and set it down, making some notes on a notepad.

"So I'm not going to die?" Sonic smirked.

"Die?" Eggman stopped writing. "Who told you that?"

Sonic looked to Shadow, making eye contact with the smirk still on his face.

"That's not what I said and you damn well know that!" Shadow had to resist the urge to strike the blue hedgehog on his already bruised head.

"I'm more concerned with this." Eggman pointed to the bruising on Sonic's abdomen. He had released Sonic three days ago with only minimal bruising from the stitches. The fact that they were darker and larger meant Sonic was completely disregarding his own health. "I told you to rest, Sonic! You are still recovering from surgery!"

"Sure. Just send me back home for some fresh air, and I'll take it easy for a week or two."

"I'd be delighted to just as soon as you agree to join the Eggman Empire."

Sonic sighed. Oh well, at least he tried.

"Until then," Eggman continued. "You can either stop this nonsense, or so help me, I will tie you down to this bed until you are fully healed."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "No need to get your moustache in a bunch."

"I'm going back to my workshop, but I'm serious, Sonic!" Eggman stood up and removed the gloves from his hands, throwing them into the nearby waste basket.

"I'm touched, I didn't know you cared!" Sonic called after the evil doctor as he left. As soon as he was out of sight, Sonic turned his attention back to Shadow. "Are you happy now?"

Yes, he was happy to hear Sonic was in good health, not that he would ever tell him. "Sonic." Shadow rubbed his forehead as all the things he wished he could say at the moment raced through his head. "Just please eat something."

* * *

Whistling to himself, Scourge stood in front of the stove in the ARK's kitchen. He had a rather large pot on the stove and several open cans of food next to him.

The doors to the kitchen slid open as Sonic entered for the first time.

Just like everything else on the ARK, minus some furniture, everything was made of solid steel. The kitchen was massive, clearly made to prepare foods for a number of people well into the hundreds. A series of stoves lined the walls of the kitchen as industrial sized pots and pans hung on hooks overhead. Below the stoves, were rows and rows of drawers. A few ovens and industrial refrigerators and freezers lined the other side of the wall, with a few small tables scattered across the room for any scientists who wanted to eat in between meals.

"'Sup, blue." Scourge greeted him with a quick glance. He proceeded to grab the open cans beside his pot and begin dumping them in unceremoniously.

Sonic had to say he was genuinely surprised. Had Scourge been the one cooking all the food brought to him? "What's on the menu?" He approached green hedgehog.

"Do I look like a chef to you?" He responded sarcastically, answering Sonic's internal question at the same time. "I'm just throwing random stuff in here, hoping it turns out well."

Sonic leaned over the pot to have a look. Sure enough, it was an invertible mess of canned vegetables and beans. "Are you…trying to make chili?" He asked, knowing Scourge shared in his favorite food.

"I already told you, I don't know what I'm making." He grabbed the seasonings scattered around the stove and dumped liberal amounts into the pot.

"Looks…great." Sonic felt physically ill looking at the pot. Scourge had not even bothered to drain any of the vegetables, and he was pretty sure green beans, sweet potatoes, and hot sauce shouldn't be in the same pot together. Not wanting to vomit directly into Scourge's concoction, Sonic stepped away, choosing to explore the kitchen some more.

Reaching one of the freezers, he opened the massive steel doors. Inside was enough food to last the end of time. Well, maybe a year or so. The contents were mostly pre-packaged meals, frozen vegetables, and miscellaneous deserts.

Pulling open the fridge directly next to it revealed even more food, mostly perishable items such as fruits, breads, cheeses, and milk.

Finding the walk-in-pantry, Sonic pulled it open and stepped in to find the stash of canned foods Scourge must have raided to make his…whatever it was he was making. "All this food and you tried to cook!?" Sonic shouted from inside the pantry. "What's wrong with a frozen pizza!?"

"You can only eat so many before the sight of them makes you want to vomit!" The green hedgehog shouted back, still stirring the pot.

"Like your cooking." Sonic snickered under his breath.

"I heard that!"

"Okay." Sonic allowed his snickers to become full blown laughter.

"Make yourself useful, get me a can of corn while you're in there!"

Finding the label of "corn" on a shelf, Sonic grabbed the nearest can and headed out of the pantry. "Catch!" He threw the can at Scourge's outstretched hand.

"Heads up!" Scourge threw the can directly back to Sonic as he approached him. "I need to take a piss, just dump into the pot and keep stirring."

Before Sonic could say anything, Scourge sped out of the kitchen, in search of the nearest restroom.

Begrudgingly, Sonic searched for a can opener in one of the many drawers. Finally finding one, he opened the can and quickly dumped it into the contents of the pot. Looking away so he could hold down whatever remnants he had in his stomach, his mind began to wander.

He was onboard the ARK being fed by hopefully not Scourge, but who was feeding his little brother, Tails? The kid was only eight years old, he didn't know how to cook. Some of his worry was relieved as he was sure Amy was helping out. Though stubborn, she had a good heart and would never let anything happen to Tails while he was gone.

"Sonic!"

Said hedgehog jumped in surprise, turning to see Scourge directly behind him.

"What the hell, man!"

"What?" He asked, with no idea as to what could have angered his green counterpart.

"It's ruined!"

Finally looking into the pot, Sonic could clearly see the problem. He had indeed dumped a can of corn in. A can of creamed corn. "Uh…" He gave Scourge a weak smile. "How does a frozen pizza sound?"

* * *

"Just admit it." Sonic said with a mouthful of pizza. "You were trying to make chili."

"Fine!" Scourge shouted back. "I was, are you happy now!?"

The two hedgehogs each sat in the observation deck of the ARK with slices of pizza, watching the planet below.

"Yes. Because just like everything else you've ever done, you failed at it." Sonic knew how insecure Scourge could be at times, and a comment like that was exactly what he needed to push the other's buttons.

"How 'bout I take that pizza and shove it right up your-"

"Okay! Okay!" Sonic cut him off before he could finish. He was having fun pissing off Scourge and could actually kind of understand why the green hedgehog did it to him too. "I'm sorry."

Scourge rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure you are."

The two continued to eat in silence, allowing Sonic's thoughts to wander back once more to Tails and his friends. With a sigh, he leaned forward, resting his head on the glass.

"Why do you want to go down there so badly?" Scourge asked, completely bewildered that someone could not possibly be enjoying unlimited access to alcohol as much as he currently was.

"I don't know, Scourge. Maybe it's cause I've got family and friends down there. You know, the two things you've never really had."

"Harsh, blue. Harsh." Scourge brushed it off, shoving half a slice of pizza into his mouth in one bite. "When you say family, I assume you're talking about the little runt."

"If you're referring to Tails, then yes, I am. And don't call him that."

"Alright, Mr. Sensitive. How exactly did you come across _Tails,_" He sarcastically emphasized his name. "If I'm not half-fox, you're not half-fox, so someone is clearly adopted."

"It's a bit of a story, but…"

* * *

**The computer room, everyone's favorite room aboard the ARK! **

**Next chapter is going to be Sonic's childhood. Yayz! **

**Writing Sonic and Scourge bantering is actually getting to be the highlight of writing this fic. I have too much experience arguing with my sister. **

**Review please! **


	8. Sonic's Childhood

**We're going to see Rosemary and Amadeus a lot in this chapter (Tails' parents). As I've said before, you don't need to know anything about them from Archie, as I'm just mostly using their names. **

**Yes, this whole chapter is one flashback. **

**You've already read the first part of it in chapter five where Amadeus and Rosemary find Sonic, so you can read the "15 years ago" section there if you need a refresher. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

Chapter Eight: Sonic's Childhood

_Mobius: 15 Years Ago_

_The Prowers brought Sonic home from the hospital that very night. The little blue hedgehog had yet to say a word to them, but the two foxes were still amazed by his perfect condition. Rosemary knew what she saw, she knew all the caked on dirt and layers of foliage indicated he had been there awhile, but the fact he walked alongside her, holding her hand said otherwise. _

"_Here we are." Amadeus unlocked the door to their home, holding it open for his wife and new charge to enter. _

_Stepping in, Rosemary kept her eyes on Sonic to see his reaction. He looked around the house curiously, but still held her hand. She let go of his hand and knelt down so she was at Sonic's eye level. "Are you hungry?" She asked, knowing he had eaten a small snack at the hospital and might still be hungry. She herself had not eaten dinner, with her and Amadeus having spent the evening in the hospital. "Do you want to eat?" She motioned putting food in her mouth with her hands. "Eat?" _

_Sonic only continued to stare at her in silence. _

"_Do you think he speaks another language?" Rosemary asked her husband, wondering why Sonic was completely silent. _

"_It's a possibility. If he was from elsewhere it would explain why no one in Mobotropolis has filed a missing child report matching his description." Amadeus removed his jacket, throwing it on the arm of the sofa. "We still need to set up a place for the little guy to sleep." He ruffled the quills on Sonic's head. "It won't be much, but I'll set something up in my office in the meantime."_

"_I'll get started on…" Rosemary glanced at the clock. It was a quarter past nine. "A very late dinner." _

_Sonic watched as the two Prowers went separate ways in the house, Amadeus into the hall and Rosemary into the kitchen. _

_Rosemary heard the sound of small footsteps behind her as Sonic scurried after her into the kitchen. She gathered all the cooking utensils she would need with Sonic close by, watching intently. "It's a little too late for something elaborate." She spoke to him, still wondering if the blue hoglet could even understand what she was saying. "So we're going to have to settle for some simple spaghetti." _

_Sonic watched as Rosemary pulled a pot out from the cupboard underneath the stove and took it to the sink to fill with water. _

_Rosemary almost stumbled with the pot of full water as Sonic walked between her legs, following very closely. Catching herself, she set the pot down on the stove and turned it on. "Careful, dear." She gently took Sonic by the hand and led him to stand beside her so he was not in the way. Wanting to make the salad while she waited for the water to boil, she walked to the fridge only to almost trip again as Sonic walked very close to her. Not wanting to actually trip and land on the hoglet, she picked him up with one arm and opened the fridge, gathering the vegetables with the other arm. _

_Not wanting him on the floor where he posed a tripping hazard, Rosemary set Sonic down on the counter beside her and began chopping up the vegetables. _

_Sonic alternated between looking at Rosemary and looking at what she was doing. _

_Rosemary gave the child a smile as he looked back to her for the seventh time. She was genuinely pleased to see Sonic smile back at her for the first time. _

_With the salad finished, Rosemary placed the spaghetti in the boiling water on the stove and closed the pot. She then opened the cupboards above the stove and took out three dishes and three glasses. Filling the glasses with water, Rosemary tried to balance the glasses in one hand with the other three plates in the other. Finding herself unable to, one of the plates fell from her grasp. _

_Before it could crash to the ground, Sonic was suddenly in front her, plate in hand. _

_Shocked, Rosemary looked from the counter where Sonic had been only moments ago. There was no way he could have jumped down from the counter and ran to her in under a second. He must have climbed down while she had her back to him. "Thank you." She remarked as she took the plate from Sonic's outstretched hands. _

_Proceeding to set the table for three, Rosemary finished and turned the heat off of the spaghetti, draining the remaining water into the sink. Setting the pot onto the table, she hoisted up Sonic onto one of the chairs. "Amadeus! The food's ready!" _

_Her husband entered the room as she seated herself at the table. Bringing Sonic's plate closer to the pot, she scooped a good helping of the pasta into his plate. Hoping he didn't mind vegetables too much, she scooped a bit of the salad into his plate before setting it down in front of him once more. _

_Once everyone had food in their plates, Amadeus and Rosemary dug right in, having not eaten anything since they found Sonic hours ago. _

_Sonic on the other hand continued to do what he'd been doing since he first arrived. He simply watched the two eating their food. After a few minutes, he looked to his own plate, grabbing the fork set next to it and began eating. _

_The Prowers watched as Sonic clumsily shoveled the pasta into his mouth. He held the fork was as if he had never used one before and much of the pasta ended up on the floor or in his lap. _

_Rosemary would have to work with him on his skills later, but for now she was happy to see him eating. By the end of the meal, Sonic had eaten three servings. _

_Both Rosemary and Amadeus wet some rags in the sink. Rosemary went to work wiping down the table and picking up the spaghetti from the floor while Amadeus cleaned the sauce off of Sonic's face and fur._

* * *

"_It's not much," Amadeus set Sonic down on the covered mattress. "But like I said, it will have to do until we can set this room up for you."_

_The only other room in his and Rosemary's small house was his office, and that's where he was forced to set the spare mattress up. The office was directly across from their bedroom so Sonic would be close by in case he needed anything in the middle of the night, making it the ideal location. Laying him down, Amadeus continued to speak. "Our room is right over there," He pointed to the open door directly across from them. "In case you need anything." _

"_Good night." Rosemary placed a kiss on Sonic's head. _

_The Prowers exited the office, leaving the door open behind them. Just as they were about to climb into their own bed, they heard a familiar patter of footsteps coming into their room. _

_Rosemary looked down to see Sonic tugging on her nightgown. Picking up the little blue hedgehog, she stroked the quills on his head. "What's wrong, little guy?" She cooed sweetly. _

_Sonic only rested his head on her shoulder. _

"_I'll go put him down." She spoke to her husband. "You get to sleep, you've still got work tomorrow."_

_Amadeus laughed. "The war's over, they won't miss me for one day."_

_Shaking her head with a smile, Rosemary carried Sonic back to the makeshift bed they had set up. She laid him down once more and covered him up with the blankets. She lay down beside the little hoglet on the mattress and began rubbing his head. _

_He was either being very stubborn or was genuinely not tired because Sonic simply refused to close his eyes. _

"_Sonic, please." She pleaded gently, wanting to fall asleep herself. "Sleep. Close your eyes." _

_It took a very long time, long past midnight, but eventually, Sonic wore out and simply could not keep his eyes open any longer. _

_With a sigh of relief, Rosemary closed her own eyes, falling asleep next to the little blue hedgehog._

* * *

_The next morning Rosemary was awoken by small hands grabbing the back of her nightgown and shaking as hard as they could. Not accustomed to being awoken in such a manner, the female fox jumped straight up in a panic. "What's going on?" _

_Looking down, she saw the new young member of her household staring at her with wide eyes. Her sudden shout must have surprised him. "Good morning, Sonic." She gave him a smile to reassure him_

_Sonic returned the smile with his first words to her. "Eat."_

_Rosemary gave a small gasp as her eyes lit up. "Amadeus!" She called for her husband. "Amadeus!"_

_Not knowing why his wife would be shrieking for him so early in the morning, Amadeus dropped his breakfast on his plate and ran to his office. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?" He asked the moment he entered the room. _

"_He spoke!" Rosemary picked Sonic up from underneath his arms and held him up. "Say it again, Sonic." She encouraged. _

_Sonic only smiled while looking between her and her husband. _

"_He did, he really did, Amadeus." She smiled weakly at the little blue hoglet in her arms. _

"_Give it some time. I'm sure he'll come around." _

"_I suppose so." Noticing the smell of slightly-burnt toast in the air, Rosemary asked her husband. "Have you already had breakfast?" Not having to go to work herself, Rosemary cooked breakfast for her husband every morning. _

"_Just some jam and toast with coffee. You were sound asleep with him," Amadeus placed his finger on Sonic's nose, "I didn't want to wake the two of you up." _

"_Promise me you'll eat a decent lunch today." She didn't want him to have to spend the day hungry or tired just for her._

"_I will." Amadeus placed a kiss on his wife's cheek. "Have a good day, Sonic." He ruffled the little hedgehog's quills. "I'll see you later."_

"_Take care, Amadeus." Rosemary walked him out of the house with Sonic in her arms. Once her husband was out of sight, she stepped back into the house. _

"_Eat." Sonic said once more as they entered. _

_Rosemary laughed at his unbelievable actions. "Really, Sonic?" She teased playfully. "You wouldn't talk when I called him in the room, but as soon as he leaves, you'll speak?" She shook her head. "Let's make something to eat."_

* * *

_Setting a plate of scrambled eggs in front of the hedgehog, Rosemary took a seat beside him with her own plate._

_True to what he had been asking for, Sonic immediately picked up his fork and began shoveling the food in his mouth. _

_Rosemary watched in fascination. Just the night before, Sonic had been clumsily using the utensil, holding it with his whole fist as he struggled to get the food into his mouth however, that was clearly no longer an issue. Now, he held it firmly between his thumb and index finger, not dropping a single bite of his eggs. _

_As soon as he was done, she began cleaning the dishes and pans with Sonic beside her on the countertop. "We're going to have to go shopping." She spoke to him. The only toiletries and clothes she had for him had been provided to her by the hospital. Her mind was already running down the list of new things she would have to purchase to accommodate a child in her home. _

_Rosemary put the last dish in the drying rack before drying off her own hand with a towel. "Let's freshen up and then we'll go." Taking Sonic's hand, she helped him down from the counter._

* * *

_Shopping for Sonic was certainly an interesting experience for Rosemary. _

_She wasn't sure how Sonic would handle being around so many people he didn't know. She wasn't even sure if he could speak English, what if he got overwhelmed and panicked?_

_Luckily, no such thing happened, but the trip did consist of having to choose between Sonic between her legs, holding onto her legs, or simply carrying him. It wasn't that the little hedgehog was afraid, quite the opposite in fact. It seemed he was merely observing everything around him. Everything seemed to catch his attention. Every now and then, something would catch his attention, pushing him to leave the three-foot radius he kept around her at all times. _

_The mannequin of a small child beaver had been one of the objects that piqued Sonic's interests, drawing him close to it. Rosemary had watched as he approached it carefully. When it didn't move, Sonic had grabbed the shirt on it and give it a light tug. He began to tug with more force, confused as to why it was not responding to him. He tugged until the entire mannequin toppled over, breaking apart when it hit the floor. _

_In a flash, Sonic was suddenly between her feet again with his arms up, demanding to picked up. Laughing, she only took his hand, leading him to the mannequin to reassemble it with the help of an understanding store clerk. _

_After clothing, they visited several other stores in search of toiletries and grooming supplies. With her and Amadeus both being foxes, neither one of them had a quill brush needed for grooming hedgehogs. The most she was able to do in the morning was smooth out Sonic's quills, but if she wanted to properly groom him in the future and prevent a build-up of dead quills on his head and in his back, she would need a brush. _

_Amongst the other purchased items were a children's toothbrush and toothpaste, gloves, socks, a new pair of shoes, and shampoo. _

_By the time they were finished, it was an hour past noon and Rosemary knew Sonic would probably be hungry. _

_Taking ahold of Sonic's hand, Rosemary walked along the city path until she reached the small eatery of one of her good friends. _

_Stepping up to the counter of the restaurant, Rosemary seated herself on one of the red stools set out for the patrons, keeping an eye on Sonic as he grabbed the stool next to her and pulled himself up on to it. _

"_What can I get you folks?" A friendly voice asked from the counter. _

"_Hello, Chuck." Rosemary greeted the light blue hedgehog. "How are you doing?"_

"_Never been better." He chuckled. "Who's this little rascal?" He asked, motioning to Sonic. "What's your name, buddy?" _

"_Sonic." _

_Rosemary smiled, happy to hear Sonic's voice again. "He must really like you, Chuck. He doesn't speak much."_

"_Well, Sonic, it's nice to meet you. You can call me Uncle Chuck."_

_Rosemary smoothed the quills on the child's head for the hundredth time that day, smiling. "Until we can find his parents, he'll be staying with us."_

"_Rosemary's nice, you'll like her." Chuck winked at Sonic. "So, what can I get for the two of you?"_

"_Chilidogs of course. Two for him, actually. He's quite an eater." _

"_Coming right up!"_

* * *

"_Sonic, what's the matter?" Rosemary was at her wits end, trying to figure out what was upsetting the hoglet. _

_Everything had been going well once they returned home. Sonic had taken a nap in the living room while she had put everything away and relaxed with a good book. Once he had woken up, she had decided it would be a good time for him to have a bath. _

_Rosemary filled the tub up and picked up Sonic. The real trouble began when Sonic realized she had intended to place him in the water. _

_The blue hedgehog immediately lifted his legs up, refusing to allow them to touch the water's surface. _

"_Sonic?" Rosemary turned him so he was facing her. "What's wrong?"_

_As usual, he didn't respond. His eyes were furrowed as he frowned, looking down at the water. _

"_It'll be a quick bath, I promise." She cooed gently, hoping to relax him. She tried to lower him into the water once more only to have him kick at the water furiously, completely soaking her. "Sonic!" She pleaded. "I have to give you a bath! You can't walk around with dirt in your quills!"_

_Sonic shook his head as if he were saying 'no' furiously. _

"_I'm sorry about this, Sonic." Rosemary lowered him into the water once more, ignoring the fact water was flying out of the bathtub as Sonic tried to escape her grasp. She held him in the water until he finally relaxed. "There, see, that wasn't so bad, was it?" _

_Reaching for the shampoo she had purchased earlier, Rosemary squirted some into her hand and began working it into Sonic's fur and quills. Putting her hand over his eyes, she poured water over his head to wash out the remaining suds. Once she was satisfied he was clean, she pulled him out of the bathwater and set him on a towel in her lap. _

"_See, that wasn't so bad." She used the edges of the towel to dry him off. _

_Sonic only turned to her and frowned._

* * *

_Three Months Later_

_Rosemary sat on a bench in the royal gardens beside Amadeus, watching as Sonic played with his friends. _

_The young hedgehog had settled in very well over the past few months. He had advanced at an amazing rate until he was caught up with other children in his age group. Within a few weeks, he had gone from not speaking to being able to use full and complete sentences. _

_He had also learned to socialize very well, becoming quick friends with the young Princess Sally, and Antoine, the young son of her husband's superior, Armand D'Coolette. The group could often be found playing around the castle or in the city. _

_Sonic had truly been the answer to her prayers. For years, both she and Amadeus had been trying to have a child with no luck. The day she learned Sonic would have nowhere to go, she knew it was their chance. _

_That very morning, she and Amadeus received a call from social services. Sonic's parents had not been located in ninety days; they were going to put him up for adoption. The agent inquired if they perhaps would be interested in adopting him seeing as they had been caring for him the past few months. Within an hour of the call, they were at the courthouse, signing the paper which would legally make Sonic their child. They came to the castle directly afterwards to share the good news with their friends and celebrate. _

_Sonic had already been referring to her as 'Mom', but now it meant so much more to her. There was so much about Sonic she was learning every day. The biggest surprise would have to be when she and Amadeus had learned about how fast Sonic could really run. _

_Thanks to the help of Chuck, who was willing to come out of retirement as a scientist to help Sonic, they were able to construct a pair of red shoes for Sonic that could withstand the intense friction of his running speed. It was Chuck who estimated Sonic could probably run at the speed of sound if he wanted, but until the little speedster did so, it would be hard to tell. _

_Rosemary thought back to Sonic's first day of school. About a month ago, she had made the difficult decision to enroll Sonic in preschool. As much as she enjoyed having him around, Sonic needed to build his early-childhood skills. _

_On the first day, she had stayed with him for a little bit to help him get acquainted to the classroom, but ultimately, the time came for her to leave. As she bid her good-bye to Sonic, she felt him suddenly grasp her pants tightly. "Mom, I want to go home." Afraid he would cry, she had explained that it would only be for a few hours and that he would have lots of fun. He took it surprisingly well, allowing her to leave without a tantrum. Thanks to his speed, Sonic had become quick friend with all the children who thought his unique skill to be very "cool." _

_Rosemary watched as Sonic took the princess by the hand and ran around the castle garden, chasing Antoine. "You don't think he'll turn out to be a bully, do you?" She asked her husband worriedly. _

"_Boy will be boys, it's just a game of tag." Amadeus laughed in response. "You worry too much."_

* * *

_Seven Years Later_

_Rosemary thought it impossible. She had spent years trying, had been told by several doctors it would never happen, yet here in here hand was a positive pregnancy test. She had been feeling nauseous the past few weeks, having hot flashes, and her cycle had stopped, all clear signs of a pregnancy. "Is it…really possible?" She asked Amadeus, showing him the plus sign on the test. _

"_We'll have to meet with a doctor to be certain." _

_And so they did, to be told the news they had spent years wishing to hear. _

"_Congratulations." The doctor said as he looked over Rosemary's lab results. "You're going to have a baby."_

_It was an exciting time for the family. Not only were the Prowers going to be welcoming a second child into their life, but Sonic was going to become a big brother. _

_Preparations were quickly made as Sonic's room was rearranged to make room for another bed. _

_At first, Rosemary was slightly worried that there would be too much of an age difference between Sonic and the child. She feared that the ten year old hedgehog would be jealous and confused by this new change, but her fears were unfounded. _

_Sonic was actually very excited to have a sibling. When he found out the new baby would be a boy, he was ecstatic._

* * *

_When the big day finally arrived, Sonic found himself in the waiting room with his adoptive father while his mother was in labor. Several hours later, they were finally able to see her and their newest family member. _

_Sonic stared in amazement at the small yellow-orange fox wrapped in a blue blanket in his mother's arms. "What are we going to call him?" He asked. _

"_I was thinking of calling him Miles." She stroked the newborn fox kit's fur. "If that's alright with you, of course." She asked her husband. _

"_It sounds wonderful. Miles Prower." _

"_Look!" Sonic moved the blanket to reveal Miles' unique anatomy. "He has two tails! I'm gonna call him Tails!"_

* * *

_But of course, all good things must come to an end. _

_Sonic could clearly remember the day his childhood ended. He had been twelve years old at the time while Tails had been two. _

_He had been at Castle Acorn, hanging out with his Sally and his little brother when it happened. _

_The castle suddenly entered lock-down. The city gates were closed and the members of the royal guard began storming the city, weapons ready. _

"_What's going on?" Sonic asked Sally. His father had not informed him of any practice drills the army would be conducting that day. Why was the castle under lock down?_

"_I don't know. Let's go find my father, perhaps he can tell us." _

_Taking Tails' small hand, Sonic led him into the castle halls behind Sally. Guards were running through each room, securing the premises. _

"_What's going on?" Sally asked a guard she had stopped. _

"_Princess," The guard saluted her before continuing, "Stay in your quarters until Rosie comes for you. You too, Sonic." _

"_But what's going on?" She asked as the guard ushered her and her friends back into the room. _

"_We're under attack, my princess. Remain here." The guard closed the door behind them. _

_Sally turned to Sonic with a horrified look on her face. "We're under attack?" _

"_Don't worry, Sal." Sonic put a hand on her shoulder. "Everything's going to be fine." _

_Sally ran to the veranda of her room and stepped outside. All around here was destruction and confusion. She could see off in the distance an army of metal approaching. Explosions shook the city and a rather large human male dressed in red stood before the castle gates. "Is that…Julian?" She asked._

_Sonic stood beside her, looking in the same direction. "I…can't tell from here." He squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look. "It couldn't be. He's the chief scientist of the kingdom! Why would he be attacking?"_

"_Children!" Rosie threw the door to the princess' bedroom open in search of them. "Are you here?"_

"_On the veranda, Rosie!" Sally called back to her worried caregiver. _

"_Come along children," Rosie grabbed Sally's wrist, not wasting any time. "We must leave at once!"_

_Not wanting to lose the small child in all the confusion, Sonic picked up Tails and ran directly behind the two chipmunks. _

_Rosie led them to the castle's kitchen. They ran into the pantry, where a few guards were already waiting for them. _

"_When you find the king." Rosie spoke to the guards. "Let him know the princess is safe. He knows where this leads. Once we've passed through, destroy the entrance. Do not let Julian find Knothole!" _

_The guards pushed aside a large shelf, revealing a secret tunnel. _

"_Come on, children." Rosie ushered them. "In you go." _

"_But, my parents-"_

"_Don't worry, Sonic. Your father knows where we are going. He will come find you." She practically grabbed the blue hedgehog and shoved him into the opening. "Go, Sonic, go!"_

_At this point, Tails was terrified. Being very young, he didn't quite understand what was going on, but the sudden movements of the guards around him and the loud explosions and shouting from all around him were causing him to whimper in fear. _

"_It's alright, little buddy." Sonic held Tails closer, pushing his face into his shoulder so he wouldn't have to see the dark tunnel. "It's going to be alright." Whether he was saying this to calm Tails down or himself, he couldn't really say. _

_When they reached the end of the tunnel, they found themselves in a village built entirely in the trees. _

"_Where are we?" Sonic asked, never having seen the place before. _

"_Children," Rosie said sadly, "Welcome to Knothole."_

* * *

_For the next few days, it was chaos. Knothole itself was very organized, with relief and aid beginning right away as people arrived every day. _

_To Sonic, it was a nightmare. It turned out Sally had been right, and it was Julian, now calling himself Robotnik, who had attacked the kingdom. _

_Every day, a list of confirmed casualties was reported in the underground meeting hall. The day finally came when Sonic's worst fears were realized. Both the names of his mother and father were listed among the deceased. Having Tails with him at the time, he put on a brave face, refusing to cry. _

_That night, he went home to his little tree hut, having been deemed old enough to maintain one on his own at twelve. With so many orphan children and adults gone to fight what they were calling the "First Robotnik War," Sonic was allowed to keep Tails. _

_But this wasn't what he wanted. This wasn't the world he wanted Tails to grow up in. It was too much to bear. He couldn't come to terms with the fact everything he had known was gone. He couldn't cope with the loss of his parents. _

_That night, Sonic made up his mind. In the late of night, he wrapped Tails up in his blanket and made a makeshift sling, slinging the little fox kit on his back. He stepped outside of Knothole, casually strolling out of the forest as not to draw attention to himself. _

_As soon as he was out of the forest, he ran. Running faster than he ever had before, he did what he had never done before. He broke the sound barrier, creating a massive sonic boom._

* * *

_Sonic spent the next two years running all over the rural parts of Mobius with Tails. It was during their time away from the chaos of Mobotropolis that they discovered Tails could use his mutation to fly, something Sonic encouraged him to do often. _

_It was fun, traveling the country side as two brothers, meeting so many new people, and learning so many new things. _

_Tails had developed quite a knack for robotics and machinery, which proved very useful. _

_Robotnik was not happy with capturing the Kingdom of Acorn. He wanted the entire planet in the palm of his hands. It wasn't long before Sonic found himself having to fight off Robotnik's lackeys to keep peace in the country side. _

_Before they knew it, Sonic and Tails were traveling the country side specifically to fight Robotnik and stop his forces. _

_They spent two years living that way, free as the wind around them. _

_Eventually, Sonic had to come to the realization that he would never stop Robotnik this way. It was like trying to stop water from overflowing the sink without turning off the faucet. He had to get to the source of the problem. _

_He had to go back to Mobotropolis. _

_At age fourteen, he rejoined his old friends in Knothole and formed the Freedom Fighters and had been fighting Robotnik ever since then._

* * *

**Long Chapter, Woohoo! **

**The part of Sonic and Tails roaming the country side is my way of intertwining AoSTH into the Archie canon. **

**Unlike Archie, Rosemary and Amadeus are really dead. They won't be making any appearances here. **

**Interestingly enough, Sonic's as a child is based off a child I'm currently working with. Kids are really like that at times! The child is almost five now, but I can't count the number of times I have tripped over him because he insists on hanging out in very close proximity to me. It's okay, I love him to death. **

**On a side note, I did end up going as Carmen Sandiego for Halloween. It was amazing, my costume was a hit! **

**Anyways, I hope you liked it!**

**Review please! **


	9. Welcome Back

**I've been sitting down too long. Need to restore blood flow to my legs!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating character.**

* * *

Chapter Nine: Welcome Back

Rouge flapped her wings as she prepared to land on the ice. What had started as a trip to Mystic Ruins to visit Knuckles had quickly turned into a treasure hunt once she had sensed a chaos emerald nearby. Following the chaos energy, she found herself traveling up the mountain on the island into the Icecap Zone.

After dropping to the ground, Rouge insured she had a good footing on the ice. Carefully treading on the frozen ground, she walked towards the end of the cavern, now sensing two chaos emeralds. Today was going to be her lucky day!

Reaching the clearing of the cavern, she stumbled upon not only the lake, but a pleasant surprise.

"Tall, dark, and handsome." Rouge smiled at her old friend, whom stood at the edge of lake, staring down into it. "Is that you?"

"Hello, Rouge." Shadow turned his attention to the bat, greeting her in return.

"Is this where you've been all this time?" Rouge calmly walked over to the dark hedgehog. "I've been wondering why your room at the Club has been empty." As she reached his side, she too looked down into the lake, wondering what Shadow had been staring at. She caught sight of the chaos emerald she had sensed earlier, lodged at the bottom of the pool. Shadow must have had the second chaos emerald and used it to teleport into the cavern. "I hope you're not eyeing my precious dear down there." She said in her flirtatious tone.

"I'm afraid I am, Rouge."

Rouge had to laugh. She knew she was no match for Shadow, making a fight between them pointless, but competing with him for the emeralds was not something she normally had to do. "Every time you need the chaos emeralds, it means bad news. Why don't you fill me in on what's going on? I take you already know what's happened to Sonic."

Shadow's brow furrowed at the mention of his brother. What conclusion had they reached on Earth? Had they somehow figured out he was on the ARK? "What happened?"

"We're not entirely sure ourselves, but according to Scourge, he's dead."

Shadow knew Eggman had sent Scourge to throw them off of Sonic's trail. He must have told them that to get them to stop searching for him completely.

"But," Rouge continued. "You know better than that, don't you?"

There was no hiding it. Rouge simply knew him too well. "Sonic's fine. That's all I can tell you." He wasn't too concerned with Rouge knowing the truth. She had more of a level head than the others and wouldn't immediately jump to conclusions or rush off to try and find a way to save Sonic.

"I'm happy to hear that and all, but what exactly am I supposed to tell the others? They're going to want to know how I came across this information."

"Don't tell them." Shadow removed his hover shoes from his feet and took off his gloves. "Just play along with their little search." Taking a breath, he dived into the frigid waters of the Icecap Lake. Not affected by the depth or temperature, Shadow grabbed the chaos emerald at the bottom before swimming up to the surface.

Rouge held her arm out to Shadow, helping him out of the lake. "And now you've gone and given yourself hypothermia."

"You know I'll be fine."

A beeping from Shadow's wrist drew both of their attention away from the conversation.

"Let me take this." Shadow motioned to Rouge he would need a minute. He pushed a button on the wrist communicator. "Yes, Doctor?"

"Shadow, have you secured the chaos emerald yet?" Eggman asked over the communicator.

Seeing the perfect opportunity, Rouge suddenly grabbed Shadow's wrist and moved it to her face, getting a clear view of Eggman from the small screen. "Oh, Eggman. What do you think you're doing?" Rouge motioned for Shadow to hand her the chaos emerald in his other hand. Grabbing it, she brought it in view of the screen. "Hiding these precious babies from me?"

"Ah, Rouge." Eggman sounded genuinely surprised. "Always a pleasure to see you."

"The pleasure's all mine." She smirked as she continued. "Now, what are you keeping from me?" She mentioned once more, refusing to allow Eggman to change the subject.

"That depends. Where do your loyalties lie?"

"With the highest bidder. You know that." Rouge had worked for Eggman several times before on Mobius, and even on Earth. She knew he had the drill down by now.

"Then I think I might have a place for you."

"I'm listening." Rouge feigned interest.

"Shadow!" Eggman shouted. "Bring Rouge back with you. I think we may be able to reach an agreement."

The wrist communicator turned off as the transmission ended.

"Rouge!" Shadow immediately began. "What are you getting yourself into?"

"I can ask you the same question." She scoffed in return.

Shadow frowned in silence, knowing she was right.

"Shadow." Rouge called his name in a much softer tone. "Considering what happened last time, I know you would never work for that insane man unless you had to. What does he have that you need?"

"Information…about my past…and about Sonic." He said slowly, not sure how to tell Rouge.

"Sonic?"

"It's…a bit of a long story."

Rouge sighed, seeing how obviously uncomfortable Shadow was with the topic. "I'm sure we'll have more than enough time to cover whatever it is later, but…" Rouge was really bothered by one thing. "Why didn't you come to me first? I could have pulled up anything you wanted from the G.U.N. archives."

"You won't find this in the archives. Even then, nothing from there is trustworthy. How many fake G.U.N. reports did you and I go through last time we needed information about my past?"

Rouge couldn't deny that. "Fair enough. Whatever it is you need, we'll get it, save Sonic, and get the hell out of there, just like we always do."

"Thank you." Shadow gave Rouge a small smile. "I really appreciate this."

"Just don't get all sappy on me." She taunted back. "So where are we going anyways?"

* * *

"Wow." Rouge gazed at the breathtaking view in front of her. "Never thought I'd be back up here again." It wasn't that often she had the opportunity to orbit a planet. She could never be bored of the sight.

"The Doctor is probably in his workshop. It's right down-"

"I know where everything is Shadow," She cut him off, "You and I spent quite a while up here together, if I recall." She finished with a wink.

Shadow was tempted to roll his eyes, but instead chose to follow as Rouge led the way to the workshop.

* * *

Shadow walked through the ARK as he waited for Rouge and Eggman to finish their discussion, searching for Sonic yet again.

With most of the ARK blocked off to the blue hedgehog, Shadow found him within minutes in the lounge. The blue hedgehog was sprawled out on the couch, watching a white movie on the television. He must have been really bored. Shadow knew Sonic hated the television most of all when it came to human electronics. To him, it was just an excuse for the humans not to go outside and run.

"Sonic?"

Said hedgehog turned to Shadow with a frown, as usual, on his face.

Now that he had his attention, Shadow did not know what he wanted to say. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't entirely sure why he had even called Sonic's name in the first place. He was too accustomed to having the speedster try to push or carry a conversation with him; he had assumed it was the way this particular conversation would have flowed. He was saved from having to come up with an awkward conversation starter when Sonic simply turned back to his movie, no doubt continuing to give him the cold shoulder.

He left the lounge, heading for the observation deck, knowing it was the first place Rouge would have come looking for him.

As he stood before the glass, gazing down at the planet for the umpteenth time, the electronic doors slid open as Scourge walked onto the deck, a huge smile on his face.

"Yo, stripes!" Scourge said excitedly. "Did you know Bats is here?!"

Shadow only gave the green hedgehog a disapproving glance.

"Bats." Scourge said once more, not knowing if Shadow understood whom he was referring to. "You know, Rouge." Scourge had cupped his hands to his chest in case Shadow needed a visual aid.

"I know who 'Bats' is, Scourge!" Shadow snapped, not wanting to deal with the green hedgehog's immaturity.

"Then why didn't you say so!" Scourge asked as if Shadow were the idiot. "What do you think my chances are?"

Shadow was starting to get irritated. He never had much patience for Scourge and now was certainly not the time for it. "Scourge…" He growled, giving the other a warning.

"Oh come on, Stripes! It's not like the two of you are going at it anymore!" Scourge reasoned.

"Scourge! I'm warning you!"

"Come on, man. I think you can share!"

* * *

Rouge almost took a step back from the sheer surprise of what she saw stepping into the observation deck.

It was a frenzy of absolute speed as two blurs, one green and one black and red continuously collided with one another.

It was good thing the deck was devoid of any furniture, or it surely would have been laying in shatters on the floor from the continuous impacts.

Scourge stopped abruptly, suddenly appearing in front of Rouge. He ran his hands over his quills, smoothing them down. "'Sup, Bats." He said smoothly, as if he weren't just fighting with Shadow moments ago.

Unfortunately for Scourge, stopping in the midst of the fight to flirt was not the brightest of ideas he had ever had. Next thing he knew, he was on the floor as Shadow landed a perfect hit directly on his back.

"Hello, Scourge." Rouge was pretty sure Scourge couldn't hear her over the sound of his own ribs cracking thanks to Shadow.

Shadow got up, off of Scourge, satisfied with the beating he had given him. "How did it go?" He asked Rouge, ignoring the green hedgehog on the floor who was clearly in pain. "Let's walk."

* * *

"After putting on a show of negotiating a salary, I'm still only getting half of what G.U.N. normally pays me, and that's if we don't put a value on the immunity I get from all my jewel heists." Rouge lamented as the two of them walked down the halls of the ARK.

"It must be very tragic for you." Shadow mock-lamented back to her.

"I'll live, but it's you I'm worried about." Rouge dropped all traces of playfulness in her tone.

"And it's Sonic I'm worried about." Shadow's tone was equally serious.

"Where is he?"

"In the lounge."

"Let me go have a look at him." Rouge began fiddling with the wrist communicator Eggman had given her, the very same on she had used with Shadow earlier. "There's a camera on this thing, right?" Her question was answered when she accidentally snapped a picture of the floor in front of her. "Found it."

When they entered the lounge, Sonic was still where he had been twenty minutes earlier, only this time, he didn't turn around to see who had entered, assuming it was Shadow again.

Taking advantage of the moment, Rouge slid herself onto the couch and snapped a picture as soon as Sonic looked her way. "Hey there, big blue."

"Rouge?" Sonic sat himself up on the couch, surprised to a friend up on the ARK. "What are you doing here?"

"You know me." She shrugged. "Where Shadow goes, I go."

"Yeah. Me too, apparently." Sonic shot Shadow a dirty look.

Rouge hadn't been filled in on all the details yet, but even she could see that Sonic wasn't too happy with her friend. "Well I'll leave you be. I just came by to say hello, but you'll be seeing more of me around here. Promise."

"Great. Looking forward to it." Though he said it with a smile, his usual bright and cheerful personality was nowhere to be found.

"Hang in there, tough guy." With that, she stood up and grabbed Shadow's arm, dragging him out of the lounge with her.

As soon as they were out of ear-shot of the lounge, Rouge let get of Shadow. "What did you do?" She asked harshly. "It takes a lot to piss of Sonic, but he looks absolutely dead! I figured you were six feet under, but I didn't think you were in this deep! What did you do?"

He might as well fill her in now, it's not like he could put it off to a later point. "It's a long story, so I'll just start from the beginning." Shadow drew out his treasured journal pages and handed them to Rouge. "Here. These will explain everything better than I can."

* * *

Tails woke with the sunrise outside of his workshop in the Mystic Ruins. He stretched himself out in the little hammock he had tied between two trees as he couldn't sleep inside yet.

The workshop was still severely damaged from the fire and repairs were on hold as him and his friends searched for Sonic.

Rubbing his eyes, Tails opened them up to find an unmarked white envelope resting on top of the red blanket he had been using. Unsure of what it could be, Tails opened it up.

Out fell a picture with a note.

_I can't tell you where I am, but I am with Sonic. He's okay. I'm working with an old friend of mine to get him out. Do me a favor and let Knuckles know. Hang in there, little guy._

_-Rouge_

The little fox kit picked up the fallen picture and examined it.

It was Sonic alright, but the hedgehog looked thinner, as if he had lost a good amount of weight. He also had a surprised expression on his face. Did Rouge take this picture by surprise?

Tails threw his blanket off and rolled out of the hammock. He ran for the jungle, heading for the Master Emerald Shrine.

* * *

**Another chapter down! I'm on a roll!**

**Who has been watching Sonic Boom? I'm really enjoying it! I wasn't so sure about Sticks originally, but after "Translate This," I'm starting to like her. **

**Review please! **


	10. Trust Me

**The Cheesecake factory has discontinued my favorite chocolate-coconut cheesecake. Sadness.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

Chapter Ten: Trust Me

"First mission and he's having me infiltrate G.U.N. Typical Eggman. Leave it to him to run me on some trust exercise." Rouge casually strolled down the maximum-security facility, greeting her co-workers as they walked by.

"Can you really blame him?" Shadow asked as he walked alongside her. "Last time he hired you, you turned you back against him for this very organization. How can he be sure you won't do it again?"

"How can I be sure this thing won't electrocute me to death?" Rouge held up her wrist communicator.

Shadow was pretty sure it was more than capable of doing that, but he chose to keep his mouth shut on the matter. "You've got it easy. When I get sent on missions, I actually have to work."

"That's your own fault." Rouge put a hand on her hip. "You're the one who turned down the opportunity to work for G.U.N. An opportunity, which is still available to you, by the way."

"One I'm also going to have to decline. Again." Rouge had offered him a position in G.U.N. countless times, yet his answer never changed.

"It's different, Shadow. It's not the same evil group that it was fifty years ago."

"That may be true, but it doesn't change my answer."

Rouge wanted to continue to argue it over, but they had reached their destination. It would just have to wait for later. Typing in the security code to enter the G.U.N. labs, Rouge motioned for Shadow to enter.

Inside, they found Topaz already waiting for them with a G.U.N. engineer and their desired item.

"Rouge, Shadow." Topaz greeted. "Here we are, ready to go!" She patted an impressive looking engine beside her and the engineer.

"This is what we came for?" Rouge asked as she walked around the contraption, observing its structure. "What's so great about this? Why does G.U.N. even have this, I've never seen this before."

"It's an engine." The engineer spoke up.

"I can see that." Rouge had torn her way through enough robots and hotwired enough vehicles to know what an engine looked like. "I want to know what makes this engine so special Eggman had to send us to steal it."

"It runs on a combination of chaos energy and solar energy." Shadow spoke up before the engineer or Topaz could. "Dr. Gerald Robotnik created it as a means of powering the ARK, and it's what currently keeps the life support system up there intact."

"Correct." The engineer continued after Shadow. "We were able to build this model from blueprints of Gerald's original work we had on file. It's the same kind of engine that runs in many of G.U.N.'s top war ships and air ships."

"So if there's already one up there, why does he need another one?" Topaz asked the two anthropomorphic creatures.

"As far as I'm aware, the engine aboard the ARK is fully functional; it wasn't damaged when the ARK was hurtling towards earth. Perhaps the doctor simply needs to generate more energy, or the single engine we have is not capable of processing all the energy from the chaos emeralds without the eclipse cannon."

"Including the one you have on you, Eggman has five of the chaos emeralds at the moment. If that were the case, wouldn't the system have overloaded already? Five emeralds is a lot of energy." Rouge asked Shadow.

"For all we know, he's just doing it to knock G.U.N. down a peg. These are not cheap. It takes time and lots of precious metals to make these. Not to mention the warship we would have had to destroy should we have really been stealing this."

"We can sit here and wonder all we want," Rouge reasoned. "We'll never know what goes on inside that man's head. The most we can do is try to stay one step ahead of him."

"Right," Topaz drew a small black remote from the inside of her bullet-proof vest. "Which is why you two need to hang on to this." She handed the device to Rouge.

"What's this for?" The white bat asked, examining the device in her hands.

"Why this, right here!" The engineer knocked on the engine. "One push of that little button," He pointed to the remote. "And BOOM! No more ARK."

"It's for a worst-case scenario, of course!" Topaz jumped in, noticing the engineer getting a little too excited about the concept of a massive space-explosion.

"Yes, of course." The engineer regained his composure. "Should the Doctor need to be stopped at a moment's notice, this engine will do the trick. Rather than taking the chaos energy and converting it into a usable power source, it will channel it directly into the ARK, overloading the system until-"

"Yes, explosion. We get it." Shadow cut him off before he could work himself up again.

"Hopefully, it will never reach that point." Rouge tacked on.

"We have everything we need, right?" Shadow asked Rouge. They had already spent a good amount of time on Earth, mostly in Club Rouge so Rouge could check up on the place and balance the casino's finances. Any longer and Eggman might actually start to get suspicious.

"Yeah, we're good to go, Mr. Impatient."

"If you two need anything else, just let us know." Topaz bid them farewell.

Shadow took Rouge's hand, preparing to teleport them out of the G.U.N. facility. "Ready?" He asked.

"I don't know, darling." Rouge used her usual teasing-flirtatious tone, taking ahold of the engine. "We've just barely met; this relationship is moving too fast for me. We're going to have to talk."

"Chaos control!" With a flash of blinding light, the two of them were on the ARK observation deck once more.

* * *

"Great," Rouge pointed to the engine on the floor of the deck. "Now we're going to have to lug this thing all the way back to the workshop ourselves. You couldn't just teleport us directly there?"

"Well if you really want to make this easier," Shadow said with a smirk. "I could always get Scourge to come down here and help us."

"I'm tempted to take you up on that offer only because I know you'll loathe every minute of it." Rouge grabbed one side of the engine while Shadow stood across from her and grabbed the other side. "But in all seriousness, we really do need to talk."

Together, they heaved, lifting the rather heavy piece of machinery up off the deck and carrying it into the hallway.

"Talk about what?" Shadow asked as he watched behind him, insuring he didn't bump into any walls or super-speed hedgehogs.

"About you and Sonic." Rouge had read through all the journal pages Shadow had and had been walked through the whole situation by the red and black hedgehog, but now it brought up other matters. "When are you going to tell him?"

"He won't even look at me, let alone talk to me for me to have the chance to even explain it to him."

"You're just going to have to keep trying until he does."

"You don't understand how stubborn Sonic can be."

"Oh I think I do." Rouge had spent years working with and against Sonic on Mobius. She had seen him stand up and fight while he was on the brink of death. She had seen him go to great and unreasonable lengths just keep a simple promise. "Which is why you have to keep trying."

"Why are you so concerned with our relationship?" Rouge had promised to help him, but Shadow didn't think she was going to try to family-council him.

"I care about you, Shadow. You know that."

"I also know you like watching me crash and burn."

"True, but I also really do care. Not just about you, but about Sonic too. He's miserable, depressed, he's starving himself without even realizing it, and he's going to end up getting himself killed trying to escape."

"I know," Shadow didn't need to be reminded about his brother's present condition, "You think I don't see that? Sometimes I just want to tie him down in the medical bay and force some food down his throat, but..."

"You feel guilty. You're the whole reason he's stuck up here." Rouge finished his sentence for him.

"More so about the fact that he's _still _stuck up here." Shadow hated seeing Sonic trapped like some house pet. "I want to just get him out of here and back to Earth with all his friends, but…I really need those journal pages." He chose not to add the part where he knew he was being a selfish prick for keeping Sonic cooped up for his own personal gain. "But I really need to know about my past, our past, and what really happened. I need those journal pages."

"How much longer will it take to get them all?" Rouge asked as they finally arrived at the workshop.

"It shouldn't be much longer now. Who knows how much longer Sonic can last up here."

They set the engine down on the workshop table.

Rouge flexed her arms a bit, trying to get the blood flowing back into them after carrying a heavy object for so long. "He's just going to have to hang in there."

* * *

Shadow stood in front of the sliding doors leading to the observation deck. Rouge was right; he had to speak to Sonic. He couldn't just let him rot away while he was being given the cold shoulder.

Taking a deep breath, Shadow stepped forward, getting close enough to the doors from them to slide open automatically.

Inside, he saw Sonic, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the deck, his head leaning against the glass.

Shadow swallowed his nerves, stepping into the room. Without saying a word, he walked over to where Sonic was and seated himself directly beside him. He watched as Sonic momentarily looked his way before returning his gaze to the planet he so desperately missed.

The two of them sat for a while like that, in complete silence.

Knowing he couldn't sit here with Sonic forever, Shadow tried to converse. "How are you holding up?" He asked, already knowing the answer from Sonic's ragged looking appearance.

Sonic didn't even acknowledge the fact Shadow had spoken.

"Does your chest still hurt?" Another question he already knew the answer to. The operation had been well over a month ago and after the threat of being confined in the medical bay once more, Sonic had done a surprisingly good job of not inuring his chest or abdomen. At this point, Shadow would say anything if it meant getting a response out of his brother.

"Are you hungry?"

Still no response.

Shadow took a few quiet breaths, trying to get his growing anger under control. Blowing up at Sonic would probably not make anything better. It would most likely push him even farther away.

Still annoyed that the black and red hedgehog had not left him alone yet, Sonic turned his back to him and stood up, preparing to leave for another part of the ARK where he could be left alone.

"Damn it, Sonic!" Shadow gave up on trying to restrain himself. "What do you want from me?!" He stood up and grabbed Sonic's shoulder, stopping him from leaving.

Sonic spun around quickly, knocking Shadow's hand off of his body. "I want you to stop treating me like I'm five years old!" He shouted in return, letting all his anger at Shadow out.

"Then why don't you stop acting like you're five!" Shadow could not take one more day of the silent treatment. He would rather have Sonic trying to attack him on sight then ignoring him like he was a child whom was told he could not have another dessert. He realized he should be careful of what he wished for in that moment as he ducked to avoid Sonic spin-dashing directly into him.

Getting into a defensive stance, Shadow stopped himself from counter-attacking. Fighting with Sonic was not going to solve the problem. "Alright, I'm sorry!" He said rather loudly, causing Sonic to stop charging for another attack. "I'm sorry." He said once more, much softer.

Still on guard, Sonic dropped his attack-ready stance.

"I'm just…really frustrated right now." Shadow finished.

"Right." Sonic scoffed. "Because you've been betrayed by someone you once considered a close friend and are being held captive against your will thousands of miles away from home with no way of getting back, or no way of knowing if your friends are alive, or even worse, no way of knowing if your own family is still alive."

Shadow felt a stab when Sonic spoke of betrayal and family. There was no denying the truth to his words, but he needed him to understand. Gently, he placed his hand on Sonic's shoulder once more, considering it a victory when Sonic didn't immediately slap it away. "Listen, Sonic, I know you're mad at me, outraged, furious, whatever you want to say. I understand that, but I need you to trust me."

Sonic raised his brow as he crossed his arms over himself. He thought it was rather funny and hypocritical that Shadow was asking for trust, be he chose to hear him out anyways.

"We're going to get through this, but you're going to need to pull yourself together. I promise I'm going to get you out of here, and I promise nothing is going to happen to your…brother." Shadow found it strange to be referring to Tails as Sonic's brother when he knew the truth. "I just need you to trust me."

"Shadow, I want to. I really want to trust you." Before this whole ordeal, Sonic would have believed anything Shadow had told him without a second thought. "But I can't."

"I can accept that." Shadow couldn't blame anyone besides himself for what he did, but as long as Sonic was finally willing to speak to him, he could live with it. It would take some time, be he knew he could get the blue hedgehog on his side again. "But this!" He grabbed Sonic's hand abruptly and removed the glove he wore.

"Hey!" Sonic's fingers were bruised and covered in scabs. Shocked that Shadow had done such a thing, Sonic quickly pulled his hand away from Shadow's grasp, taking his glove back in the process. To mobians, hands were incredibly intimate parts. Removing your gloves in public was the equivalent to humans removing their undergarments in public. Only very close family and significant others ever saw or touched your bare hands. Sonic would have shouted at Shadow for violating his space in such a way, but the red and black hedgehog didn't give him the chance.

"Is unacceptable!" Shadow raised his voice. "This had to stop! If you're so concerned about everyone back on Earth, you'll stop these ridiculous escape attempts which will most definitely cost you your life. What good are you to your friends dead?"

Sonic could have continued to argue, but he knew Shadow had a point. It would be very difficult to stop Eggman and save Mobius if he was six feet underground.

"I promise," Shadow went back to speaking softly, confident he had made his point clear. "That I am going to get you off the ARK, but it's going to take some time before I can. I need you to wait."

"Wait? Wait for what? Wait for Eggman to take over the planet? Wait for him to destroy all life as we know it? Wait for him to tear the fabrics of space and time causing the universe to collapse on itself? What are we waiting for, Shadow?"

The easy part was over, now came the hard part. "There are…some things I can't tell you. At least not yet." Shadow struggled to find the right words.

"Shadow," Now it was Sonic who placed his hand on Shadow's shoulder. "What can't you tell me?"

* * *

**WHAT IS IT SHADOW? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SAY!**

**You're just going to have to review to find out! XD**

**Review please! **


	11. Missed Opportunities

**Wasn't that a fun wait? Now you're all going to hate me. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

Chapter Eleven: Missed Opportunities

"You didn't tell him!" Rouge shouted at Shadow as he paced around her room. "It was the perfect opportunity!"

"I know," Shadow only felt more frustrated with himself and Rouge was certainly not helping. "I know, but…it's not the right time…not now."

Rouge placed her hands on her hips, giving Shadow a disbelieving look. "Oh really? If it's not now, then when will it be the right time?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be worrying about so much."

"You know what I think?"

He might as well humor her. "No, Rouge. What do you think?"

"I think you're not telling him because you're afraid he'll reject you. He's your second chance at having a family again and if he pushed you away, you'll be you'll be completely alone again."

Shadow came to a sudden halt, his back to Rouge. With quick strides, he headed for the door, visibly upset.

Rouge instantly regretted what she said. As a straight forward person herself, she simply couldn't understand Shadow's thought process and why he was spending so much time beating around the bush. "Shadow, wait." She followed after him, grabbing his arm. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for."

"No." Shadow gave a sigh. "You're right. I just don't want to face my biggest fear right now. I'm only coming up with excuses as for why I'm not telling him."

Rouge put her arm around Shadow's shoulder with an encouraging smile. "Don't worry. You'll get another chance soon, I'm sure." Her gaze softened as pulled her arm across from Shadow's back to grasp his shoulders, facing him directly. "Besides, even if the whole world turned on you, you'll always have me. I'll follow you to the end of the world and back."

"Thank you, Rouge." It wasn't often Shadow smiled, but he couldn't help himself. It was nice to know there was someone looking out for him. Gently removing Rouge's hands from his shoulders, he continued walking.

"Where are you going?" The white bat asked, curious if Shadow intended to reveal the truth to his brother right now.

"The doctor wants me to get another chaos emerald. It'll be a good chance to clear my head and think this through. I need to make a personal stop while I'm at it."

"Do what you need to do, Shadow."

* * *

"That's Rouge's handwriting for sure." Knuckles confirmed as he finished reading the letter. He was all too familiar with it after reading all the thank you notes the jewel thief would leave for him after stealing the master emerald yet again.

"Do you recognize where this picture was taken?" Tails asked hopefully. It was the only lead they had at the moment

"I doubt it." Amy answered on behalf of the echidna. "The green couch is the only clue we have as to his location. There could be thousands of those in Station Square, assuming he's still even in Station Square."

Tails knew it was true, but he still couldn't help but feel upset.

Seeing his frown, Knuckles gave the fox kit a playful punch. "Don't be like that. We know he's still alive and wherever he is, Rouge is with him. She may be annoying, but she gets results."

"All we can do for now is keep searching for Scourge. We'll find him." Amy said hopefully. "Eventually."

* * *

Tails opened the door to his workshop with a large yawn. After sharing the note with Knuckles and Amy, the three of them had spent most of the day searching for Scourge, unsuccessfully.

The workshop was still badly damaged from Scourge's attempting to burn it down, and repairs had been going slow. Tails had been spending most of his days searching for Sonic and Scourge, and the last few remaining hours before he fell asleep repairing the place. Amy and Knuckles would come to help out on their down time, but it was still a huge task for three people.

So far, they had disposed of all the electronics and damaged furniture, which was just about everything in the workshop. The broken windows had been replaced, but it was a useless task as they were never closed. The smell of smoke lingered in the place as did piles of ash in the corners of the rooms. There were pieces of torn out wall in all the rooms and halls as Tails worked towards re-wiring the entire workshop.

Everything would have to be replaced, the floors, the walks, the plumbing, the wiring, the ceiling, and so much more.

After having extinguished the fire with the help of the Station Square fire fighters, the humans had pleaded with Tails not to return to the building. It was structurally unsafe they had told him, and would need professional work to repair.

Of course, Tails paid no attention to their warnings. He had built this workshop with Sonic, using nothing but their own two hands. He could rebuild the place with nothing but his own two hands if he had to.

Picking up where he left off the other day, Tails grabbed his tools and went back to working on the wiring and electrical sockets in the house. He figured it would be easier to work with many of his tools if he was able to power them on while inside the workshop. Placing his goggles over his eyes to prevent any damage to them, he went straight to work.

As Tails became absorbed in his task, he didn't hear the door to the workshop open. He also did not hear a black and red hedgehog step into the workshop.

Shadow had known something was wrong from the moment he had lay eyes on the outside of the building. It had scorch marks all over it and the plants that surrounded it on the outside were nothing more than dead shrubbery.

Inside, it was even worse. The whole place smelled of smoke fumes and the floor was misshaped, and sunken in, all signs of heavy water damage.

Taking care not to step on the sunken parts of the hardwood floor, Shadow searched for Tails, finally finding him wedged in between the space between the ceiling and the floor of the second story of the building. "Tails?" He called out questioningly, not sure if he should be interrupting the kit while he was working.

Whatever project Tails had been working on was stable, as he immediately turned his power tools off and dropped down from the ceiling, using his tails to break his fall. "Shadow." He greeted in surprise, never having received said hedgehog as a visitor before. "Is that really you?" The thought that his visitor might be a robot did cross his mind.

"I'm not an android, if that's what you're asking." Shadow watched as Tails wiped the dust from the crawlspace out of his fur. "What happened here?"

"Scourge." Tails said bitterly. "He destroyed my tornado and set the workshop on fire." Tails motioned to the burn marks on the walls. "But at least the place is still standing, right?"

Scourge had really done all this? The green hedgehog did have a certain dislike for Sonic and his friends, but even Shadow found this a little on the extreme side. "Where you…in the building?" He asked delicately. Tails didn't have any visible burns, but fire damage could harm a person in so many different ways.

"No. We only found out it was Scourge because we showed in time to watch him blow my plane up." Tails' tone dropped to bitterness once more. Realizing he had forgotten his most basic manners, he spoke once more. "I would offer you something to drink, but…"

"No, it's alright. I'm fine." It was pretty obvious the workshop was in no condition for entertaining guests.

"If you're looking for Sonic," Tails continued, trying his best to keep his emotions under control. "He's not here. He's…"

"Rouge told me." Shadow stopped Tails, not wanting to upset him. "I came to help." He did promise Sonic he wouldn't let anything happen to the kit. It wouldn't hurt if he spent a few hours with him, helping re-build the place.

"Great!" Tails lit up at the prospect of help. It would certainly speed up the process! "I could sure use some!"

* * *

"Alright, Shadow!" Tails shouted from the crawlspace in the ceiling. "Turn it on!"

When Shadow had offered to help, this wasn't exactly what he had in mind. Flipping the first switch on the control circuit, he saw the lights in the next room turn on.

That one action had pretty much summed up the past two hours for the ultimate life form. As Tails had repaired the power to the workshop section by section, he had been standing by the switchboard, turning various fuses on and off or replacing them with new ones if needed.

Though Tails had been too shy to ask, Shadow had taken it upon himself to tear out the ceiling of the areas that had been repaired. Thanks to his impressive strength, he simply grabbed the burned stucco and pulled it off, only relying on tools when he came close to the walls, not wanting to send the whole place crashing down.

Luckily, the fire hadn't reached the second floor of the workshop, so most of it was still intact. The furniture did have to be replaced due to the smoke smell that lingered in all the bedding and carpet.

"Alright!" Tails entered the room rather excitedly, covered in dust. "We have power to the whole house! Thank you so much, Shadow!" He pulled the goggles off, rubbing away the dust from his muzzle. "All that's left is to dispose of the roofing we've torn out and we can call it a night. There's a dumpster out by the train station. It may take a few trips, but I'm sure we can-" The kit stopped in his tracks as he watched Shadow pick up the massive pile all at once, "…that works too."

With two flashes, Shadow had left the workshop with the debris and proceeded to return without it, having used chaos control to reach the dumpster quickly.

"That makes everything so much easier. Thank you!"

"It must be very late." Shadow checked his wrist communicator, confirming his suspicion. It was nearly one in the morning. "You're not going to be sleeping here, are you?" If the workshop didn't collapse on him, killing him instantly, the damage the carcinogens left behind from the fire would do it slowly.

"I've been staying with Amy in her apartment in Station Square, but I missed the last train to station square a while ago. I'll probably string up a hammock on some trees outside. Worst case scenario, I'll stay with Knuckles at the Master Emerald Shrine." Tails didn't mind camping outside. Before he and Sonic had taken up residence at Knothole, it was a nightly occurrence.

Shadow took ahold of Tails' arm. "I know where Amy's apartment is. I'll take you there." He had promised Sonic he would take care of Tails. He couldn't very well leave him out in the wilderness to fend for himself.

Before Tails could protest, he found himself standing in Amy's living room with Shadow. "Wow. Well, thank you for this. And for all your help."

Satisfied Tails would be alright for a night, Shadow disappeared in another flash.

* * *

Tails rubbed the back of his head as he walked through Station Square with Amy. Though the damage had been inflicted hours ago, the pain was certainly still there, along with an impressive bruise.

"Will you stop doing that!" Amy said rather angrily. "I already said I'm sorry. Several times!"

After Tails had arrived with Shadow at her apartment, he began setting up the couch to sleep for the night. Amy, having heard the commotion from her room, immediately awoke, summoning her Piko Piko hammer. She had cautiously stepped into the living room to see a figure moving about. Not bothering to see whom it was or what they were doing, she struck them square in the back of her head. Imagine her surprise when she found out it was actually Tails and not a burglar.

"It's not your fault, Amy." He said sheepishly. He didn't mean to make her feel guilty or keep reminding her about it. "It just hurts."

"Next time, use the front door!"

The two of them were heading for Club Rouge after overhearing a call for help on the police radio frequency. It seemed a certain green hedgehog was causing a scene and destroying the casino property along with threatening many of the patrons with physical violence.

As they arrived and entered the club, they could already hear the green hedgehog shouting at the various employees, all of whom were trying their best to calm him down while remaining calm themselves.

"Sir, we are going to have to ask you to leave." The club manager said for the hundredth time, attempting to get a hold of Scourge.

"Make me!" Scourge swung at the manager, missing by a mile. He was already well intoxicated at this point, having had several drinks and full cases on the house.

At first the employees thought they could simply give Scourge a few drinks and send him on his way. With Rouge away on a mission, there was no one around who was strong enough to fight the green hedgehog. Rather than create a scene and scare away customers, they gave in to his demands. It seemed to be going well at first, Scourge sat quietly at the bar with his drink. The employees had clearly underestimated Scourge's alcohol capacity as he continued to ask for more and more, demanding to have from Rouge's most expensive and old champagnes. When they said no, Scourge lost it.

"I want a drink, damn it!" Scourge continued to shout. Clumsily, he climbed over the bar and picked up the bartender. With a heave, he threw him over the counter at the manager.

The two humans landed in a pile on each other.

Scourge jumped back over the counter and grabbed one of the bar stools. He returned to behind the counter and used the stool to smash open the glass container which contained the most expensive drinks. Grabbing at the bottles, he read the labels, smashing them or drinking them depending on if he liked what he saw.

Amy and Tails ran to assist the manager and bartender, helping them back up on their feet.

"Ms. Amy, Mr. Tails!" The manager greeted happily. "Please, you must help. Scourge is going to destroy this place and Ms. Rouge is not around to stop him!"

"Don't worry." Amy had dealt with Scourge several times before. Though dangerous, Scourge was easy to handle while inebriated. "We'll take care of this."

"I'm on top of the world!" Scourge shouted as he stood atop the bar. He suddenly fell to the ground as someone kicked him in the back.

"Come on, your highness." Amy mocked, as she grabbed Scourge by the ear, dragging him towards the back.

"We'll take the exit out the back." Tails explained to the manager. "So the rest of the casino doesn't have to see him."

"Thank you very much!" The manager almost bowed in gratitude. He was already going to have a tough time explaining to Rouge what had happened to her bar when she got back, he certainly didn't want to make the situation worse.

"Ow, ow, ow! Hey! Let go!" Scourge swung clumsily at Amy, missing her every time.

As soon as they were in the alley outside, Amy let go of Scourge, only to have him grab onto her shoulders, wrapping her into a hug.

"Hey there, hot stuff." Scourge slurred, trying to sound smooth. "How about you and I go find somewhere private, and I can show you a good time."

"Ew! Gross!" Amy shoved Scourge away from her easily, watching as he lost his balance, falling over his own feet.

Surprisingly fast for someone with an abnormally high blood-alcohol level, Scourge launched himself at Amy again, wrapping his arms around her waist this time and burying his face into her stomach. "I miss Fiona!" He sobbed, tears rolling down his face. "I haven't had a girl in so long!" He continued crying into her stomach.

"I said off!" Amy gave Scourge a good whack with her Piko Piko hammer, sending him crashing into the wall of the alley.

Scourge slid to the ground, landing face down, not moving.

The two mobians watched as the moebian lay there, unmoving.

"I didn't kill him," Amy approached cautiously, "Did I?" The impact was rather powerful.

Tails hurried over to the green hedgehog's side and turned him over. There was blood on his face, where he had made direct contact with the brick wall, but he was still breathing. "No, he's fine."

"Go away." Scourge opened his eyes and swatted at Tails. "I'm still mad at you for this!" He pointed to his knee, where a scar had formed after Tails had attacked him with the screwdriver at the Mystic Ruins. "I would give you a piece of my mind for it, but _Sonic_," He drawled at the mention of his counterpart's name, "Would have a hissy fit if anything happened to you. Consider yourself lucky, Squirt."

"So you admit he's alive." Amy quickly jumped in. They already knew he was thanks to Rouge, but if they could get a confession out of Scourge, they might be able to get a location out of him as well.

"I never said he was dead!" True to his word, he had never specifically used 'death' or 'dead' to describe Sonic's condition. "I said he was in the sky!"

"Sky?" Tails asked. "You mean he's in the flying Egg Fortress?"

"Sure, whatever you want, Squirt!" Scourge laughed as he continued to lay on the floor.

Amy growled in irritation. If Scourge was able to keep his wits about him in his current state and not accidentally spill the truth, he was of no use to them. They were better off leaving now while he was in this state than stay and wait for him to sober up at which point he would pose a genuine threat. "We're not going to get anywhere with him!"

"If you wanna talk about getting somewhere." Scourge made the effort to stand up, though his posture slumped as he tried to walk. "Let's talk about us!" He placed his arm around Amy's shoulders.

Grabbing his hand, Amy swung around, letting go and sending the green hedgehog flying down the alley way.

"Fine!" Scourge shouted to the two mobians after flying over twenty feet. "If you're going to be like that, I'll find someone else to have a good time with! You missed your chance with the king!"

"You're not on Moebius, you drunk idiot!" Amy yelled back.

* * *

**I've been basing Rouge's personality on her character from the SEGA games, especially Sonic 06. Yes, it was a disaster (even though I thoroughly enjoyed it), but I really like how loyal Rouge was to Shadow. I'm sure you can see it; the "even if the world turns its back" line is a line from her dialogue in the game, if I'm not mistaken.**

**But there still is not going to be any romance in this story. Just two very close friends. **

**Review please! **


	12. Bouvet Island

**I actually did a lot of research about the island for this chapter. Pretty interesting. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating character.**

* * *

Chapter Twelve: Bouvet Island

"Can I help you?" Rouge asked as she entered her room aboard the ARK. The door to her room had been left open, something she had herself had not done, meaning someone was inside without her permission. Much to her surprise, she found Shadow, not Scourge, rummaging through her clothing.

"Yes, actually." Shadow didn't even give Rouge a glance as he continued pulling clothing out of her drawers and throwing them behind him when they weren't the article he was searching for. "I'm looking for a scarf."

"Just help yourself." She responded sarcastically. "It's not like I had everything folded nice and neat or that I prefer not having my clothing in a pile on the floor."

Ignoring her clear desire not to have her wardrobe all over the place, Shadow reached for the next drawer and placed his hand on the knob. Just as he was about to open it, Rouge swiftly grabbed onto his arm.

"Shadow, you know I have no secrets from you, but please, don't open _that_ drawer."

It didn't take a genius to figure out what kind of clothing Rouge had in there she would not want him to see. Giving up on the drawers, Shadow moved to the built-in closet of the dormitory and began searching through it.

Rouge gave a defeated sigh. She could either help him or watch as he made a mess of the rest of her clothing. Gently pushing Shadow out of the way, Rouge pulled out scarves of various colors and materials. "Had a particular look in mind?" She teased.

"This will do." Shadow picked out a navy blue scarf from the collection Rouge had presented to him.

"Why do you need a scarf anyways?" Rouge asked as he put away the other scarves and got to work folding her scattered garments.

"I'm taking Sonic on a trip."

"A trip?"

"Yes. It's going to be cold, so he'll need a scarf." Shadow removed his wrist communicator, tossing it to Rouge. "I'm going to need you to cover for me."

"Where should I go?" If Shadow wanted her to trick Eggman with the tracking devices in the communicators, they would need a decent cover.

"Go to your club. It won't be surprising we're there and it'll give you a chance to check up on the place, make sure everything's running fine."

Well, she was long overdue for a check-in. "How long will you be gone?"

"It shouldn't be more than a few hours. Just spend some time in Station Square so the doctor doesn't go looking for us up here and try to send us on another mission." Shadow bundled up the scarf

"You're lucky I like you so much, you know that?"

* * *

Sonic lay on a couch in the library, skimming through a book. Not being one for slow leisure activities, such as reading, he found it hard to stay focused. Giving up on the boring tale, he simply let go of the book, allowing it to drop onto his face.

Oh well, he was bored enough to sleep now, might as well.

Sonic suddenly felt himself being pulled upward as something wrapped around his neck. Quickly pulling the book off of his face, Sonic looked down to see a thick scarf wrapped around his neck and Shadow's hand on his arm. "What's this?" He asked.

"We're going on a trip." Shadow watched as Sonic's eyes lit up with an excitement he hadn't seen since the last time the blue hedgehog was on the planet below. "And it's going to be cold."

"You mean we're leaving the ARK?"

"Yes. But we're coming back!" Shadow added on quickly only to regret it. Though it was true, watching Sonic's face fall in disappointment struck a nerve inside of him. "It'll be good to get some fresh air." He tried once more to cheer Sonic up. Not waiting to see if it worked, Shadow prepared to leave. "Chaos control!"

* * *

Sonic hugged himself as he felt a blast of frozen air come over him. Opening his eyes, he saw himself standing on a land mass of ice and rock, surrounded by miles and miles of ocean. He felt himself shivering as the cold seemed to seep right through him, chilling him to the bone. "Where…where are we?" He asked through his chattering teeth, glad Shadow had given him the scarf.

"This, Sonic, is Bouvet Island." As much as Sonic had enjoyed traveling, Shadow knew there was no way he had ever seen this island before. Aside from the fact it was the most remote place on planet Earth and surrounded entirely by water, the island was uninhabitable. Nothing grew here and only the arctic seals came to breed. With a location so remote and isolated, Shadow didn't have to worry about anyone seeing Sonic or about said hedgehog trying to escape.

"What are we doing here?" Sonic didn't see how a trip to a frozen wasteland could be of any use to Shadow or Eggman.

"Come on, Sonic." Shadow smirked. "Don't tell me all that time on the ARK has made you…slow?" Without another word, he sped off, leaving Sonic in the dust.

"Not even in your dreams, Shads!" Sonic took off directly after him, catching up quickly.

"Follow me." Shadow took the lead, having a better understanding of the island layout than Sonic did.

Together, the two hedgehogs ran to the highest point of the island, the top of the inactive volcano. They slid down to the mouth of the volcano, a bowl which had filled with ice as after years of inactivity.

"How good are you when you can't run?" Shadow asked when they reached the pit of volcano. Pushing against the wall, he built up momentum to slide across the layer of ice. Reaching the other end of the pit, he pushed off once more, charging straight for Sonic.

"Let's see and find out!" Sonic pushed off against the walls as well, charting a collision course for the incoming black and red hedgehog.

Bracing for impact, Shadow pushed Sonic aside at the last moment, changing both of their directions. They went on like that for a while, a perfect dance of attack and defense, two high-speed hedgehogs sliding across the ice.

Sonic could feel the freezing air in his lungs, invigorating him and filling him with life once more. It felt great to breathe real air as opposed to the air generated by the life-support system aboard the ARK.

Shadow motioned to the rocky ledges of the volcanic wall. With a leap, the two hedgehogs were bounding over each other, pulling themselves up with the momentum of their arms.

With Shadow in the lead, he had already disappeared out of sight over the edge of the landform.

Grabbing onto the rocks, Sonic repeated the motion until he was at the top of the volcano. Once he reached the top, Sonic put his right foot forward. With his left food behind him, Sonic kicked off, sliding down the side of the volcano through the ice while leaning to the left and right to steer his direction.

As he built speed, getting closer and closer to Shadow, Sonic knew he would need a little extra kick to get ahead. Steering himself towards a nearby rock, he put his hand out in front him, grabbing onto it. In a swift motion, he had pulled himself up over it, launching himself in the air towards Shadow. As soon as the black hedgehog was within reach, Sonic grabbed onto his shoulders and summersaulted over him.

"Not bad, Sonic," Shadow couldn't hide how impressed he was with Sonic's quick thinking. It looked like not even months of confinement could slow down his reflexes and wit, "But we're not done yet!"

As they reached the bottom of the volcano, they took off, running along the rocky shore of the island. Making a sharp turn, they headed for the center of the island, towards the lagoon.

Though Sonic loathed water more than anything else on any planet he still followed Shadow into the lagoon.

Chunks of ice floated in the lagoon, creating perfect platforms for the hedgehog to jump on as they crossed it.

Seeing the perfect opportunity to really get Sonic moving, Shadow launched a chaos spear at the platform Sonic was on, causing the blue hedgehog to jump to another one before it was destroyed.

"Are you trying to drown me?!" Sonic shouted with wide eyes as he dodged another blast of chaos energy. Unbeknownst to Sonic, at its deepest, the water only reached two feet.

"Just think if it as training." Shadow continued to strike at the ice, fully intending to drop his younger brother in the water.

Once Sonic stood atop the last solid ice platform in the water, he felt a sweat breakout over him, regardless of the fact he was surrounded by arctic air. "Come on, Shads." He said half-jokingly, half-nervous. "I think that's enough training for one day."

On second thought, he better not. Freezing water plus arctic temperatures would surely land Sonic with a nasty case of hypothermia, one he would have trouble explaining to Eggman considering Sonic was supposed to be trapped in a controlled-temperature environment. Instead, Shadow launched a chaos spear at the water directly underneath the ice platform, launching it forwards towards land.

Sonic jumped off the platform before it crashed against the shore, shattering into several smaller chunks of ice. "Aww, I knew you cared too much about me." He teased.

If only he knew the truth. Shadow took the lead once more, racing towards the massive glacier on the island.

* * *

Both hedgehogs lay on their backs on the rocky beach, trying to catch their breath. Over four hours of non-stop running had completely drained them of their energy, one thing Shadow was glad to have accomplished.

Though the island was small, only about nineteen miles in length, it proved to be the best choice. Being composed of mostly cliffs and glaciers, it was a great workout. With Sonic completely worn out, Shadow was confident his brother would be in better spirits when they returned.

Speaking of which, Shadow turned over to see Sonic. His breath was forming into small puffs above him as he gasped for air, clearly exhausted. "Ready to go?" He asked. Shadow hated the idea of upsetting Sonic, but they couldn't stay any longer. Rouge had probably returned to the ARK by now.

"No," The blue speedster most certainly did not want to return to the ARK, "But it's not like I have a choice, do I?" He had entertained the thought of running away from Shadow when the time came to return, but where would he go? How long could he possibly stay here? Nothing grew on the island, he'd be sure to die of starvation, assuming the cold didn't get to him first.

"I'm afraid not." Shadow pulled himself up before standing. Reaching over to Sonic, who was still laying down on the rocks, he held his hand out. What happened next surprised him more than anything Sonic had done since arriving on the ARK.

As Sonic took Shadow's hand, he suddenly pulled the black and red hedgehog forward towards him and wrapped his arms firmly around him. "Thank you, Shadow." He said as he pulled away from the hug.

"Chaos control."

* * *

"Ow, ow, ow, come on! Not you too!" Scourge, now fully sober, tried to pull away from the white bat, but failed. "I said I'm sorry!"

"Sorry! You think a simple 'sorry' is going to fix all the damage you've caused?!" Rouge pulled Scourge's ear once more, doing her best not to murder the green hedgehog on the spot.

Scourge honestly couldn't see why Rouge had her panties in a bunch. "How much money could it possible cost to replace a few cans of beer?"

"A few cans of beer?!" Rouge pulled on the green hedgehog's ear once more. Who knew, maybe with enough pulling she could rip it off and shove it down his arrogant little throat? "Those were bottles of champagne over one hundred years old! Not to mention the antique liquor cabinet you shattered, which was over two hundred years old, and all the other furniture you destroyed or threw up on! Do you know how much a single bottle of one hundred year old champagne costs?"

"Uh…no."

Another sharp pull. "More than you'll ever have, that's for sure!"

That was the sight Sonic and Shadow walked into as they entered the observation deck. Rouge grabbing and pulling at Scourge, looking angrier than either hedgehog had ever seen her before in their lives.

"What's…going on?" Sonic asked, not entirely sure if he really wanted to know.

Shadow simply stared coolly, silently hoping Rouge would take care of the annoying green pain-in-his-butt for good.

"This…asinine…little…" Rouge struggled to find the right words to describe just how enraged she was, though none seemed to fit the bill, "Practically destroyed my club! The repairs are going to cost a full month's profit from Club Rouge!" Abandoning all inner restraint, Rouge threw Scourge in front of her. Throwing her leg forward, she landed a swift kick on his rear end, sending him crashing into the ARK's metallic walls.

"How many times am I going to have to apologize before you let this go?" Scourge asked, rubbing his aching ear with one hand. It didn't help that it had already been pretty bruised up from when Amy had dragged him out of the club.

"You think an apology is going to fix this!" Rouge shouted. "If we were on Mobius, I would have skinned you alive and sold your flesh on the black market to make up for all the money I'm going to have to spend to fix this!"

"Harsh, Bats." Scourge had worked with Rouge before on Mobius, but he had never seen this side of her before. "Who knew you could be so scary?"

Rouge pointed to the nearest door in the deck. "Just get out of my sight!"

"I see you've had an exciting day." Shadow smirked, giving Rouge a taste of her own sarcasm.

"Why don't you just ask him about it?" In one swift motion, Rouge pulled out a few concealed knives and threw them at Scourge.

Scourge ducked in time, watching as the projectiles hit the wall and fell to the ground. "You're trying to kill me!" He shouted. "You're really trying to kill me!" Scourge got up from the floor and marched over to Sonic and Shadow. Grabbing Sonic's arm, he dragged the blue hedgehog along with him as he headed for the door. "Come on, Blue. Let's go play some video games until Bats gets off her period."

Looking back to Shadow and Rouge, Sonic waved goodbye sympathetically to Rouge as the metal doors slid shut behind him.

"Why that little!" Rouge could have chased him into the hall and strangled him right then and there.

"Just relax." Shadow stepped in front of her, knowing what was on her mind. "He's unimportant."

Taking a deep breath, Rouge spoke to herself. "For the mission. Don't kill him for the mission." Opening her eyes, she quickly shifted topics, hoping to get her mind off all the hassle she was going to have to go through once she was back on Earth. "So," She began. "How did it go?"

"It went well." Shadow tossed the scarf Sonic had used earlier to Rouge. "Here's your scarf back. Thanks."

"No problem. But," Rouge tossed it back to Shadow, "You keep it. I assume you're going to want to take him out again." She watched as Shadow bundled the scarf up. "So, did you tell him?"

"Not yet, Rouge. Not yet."

* * *

**Bouvet Island is a real place. There's actually a fascinating mystery behind it. The story goes that a lifeboat was found on the island with supplies in a condition only a person could have put them in. When they searched the island, they never found any bodies. To this day no one knows how the lifeboat got there or who was on it.**

**Look it up, it's a good read. **

**As always, I hope everyone is enjoying this!**

**Review please! **


	13. Change In Plans

**So hungry. Blood sugar so low.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

Chapter Thirteen: Change In Plans

The next few weeks fell into a regular pattern for Shadow.

During the day he would spend most of his time on various missions from Eggman with Rouge. In the evenings, he would try to spend as much time with Sonic as he could before his younger brother got too tired to stay up any longer. Afterwards, he would teleport himself down to earth to help Tails rebuild his workshop.

The two of them had made significant progress in the restoration of the house. There were only a few things left to fix-up, mostly the finishing touches. They had replaced all the plumbing, all the floorboards, many of the walls, the roof, and the ceilings. The only thing left to do were appearance based, such as replacing all the furniture and electronics that had been destroyed, giving the place a fresh coat of paint, and planting some new greenery outside to revitalize the area.

It worked well for Shadow. By helping Tails out every night, he was able to check up on him, keeping his promise to Sonic that he would not let anything happen to the kit.

Speaking of Tails, the young fox had actually been pretty upset when Knuckles and Amy decided to give up the search for Sonic and trust Rouge. Eggman had gone back to his normal routine of attacking Station Square and he, along with Knuckles and Amy, were needed to stop him in Sonic's absence.

On his off days, Shadow took Sonic to Bouvet Island and ran him ragged, making sure the blue hedgehog was completely exhausted before bringing him back to the space station. Shadow was relieved to see Sonic's overall health and demeanor improving greatly. He could not even begin to express how happy he was now that he no longer had to put up with his younger brother's stubborn and immature cold-shoulder treatment.

The best part was that Sonic was finally opening up to him. On their trips to the frozen island, Shadow took to asking Sonic lots of questions, ranging from everything to his past, to life on Mobius, and to his own personal interests. The blue speedster had shared the same story of his past he had shared with Scourge, giving Shadow a deeper look into his relationship with Tails.

Currently, Shadow was beginning his preparations for a new day, heading down to Eggman's workshop on the ARK. He knew today would be a solo mission without Rouge, which was never good news for him. If it was something Rouge wouldn't do, it was something he himself would often not want to do.

"Doctor?" Shadow called for the evil genius as he stepped into the workshop.

"Catch, Shadow!" Eggman immediately threw something at the black and red hedgehog.

Using his super-speed reflexes, Shadow immediately caught the small object that had been thrown his way. Opening his hand to investigate, he found a small flash-drive in the palm of his hand.

"Phase one of the mission is simple." Eggman began. "You're going to break into the Station Square G.U.N. headquarters and upload the virus on that flash-drive into their national database."

"Why send me? Why not send Rouge?" It made more sense. Rouge had clearance into the G.U.N. headquarters, she would not have to go through the trouble of a break-in. Technically, Shadow had clearance too, but Eggman was not aware of it. As far as the evil genius was concerned, he would still need to break in. "She could get in, get on a computer, and access the database, all without arousing any suspicion."

"Rouge is not physically capable of completing phase two and three of the mission and it makes no sense to switch you two around for the sake of one mission. Upload the virus and contact me for further instruction."

* * *

Sonic and Scourge bounced off the walls of the observation deck, charging directly towards each other. Both in a spin-dash, they bounced off each other once more, uncurling and landing across from each other.

"Tired yet?" Scourge taunted.

"You wish!" Sonic charged head-on once more, launching forward with his legs out.

Scourge followed suit in the same position until both hedgehogs were across from each other, exchanging kicks, repeatedly colliding with and blocking each other's attacks.

Sonic ran directly toward Scourge, finally spotting an opening. As the green hedgehog held his foot out in front of him for a kick, Sonic put his own down, propelling himself upwards. He grabbed onto Scourge's head and threw him underneath him, projecting himself forwards.

Just as Sonic thought he had the upper hand, Scourge turned around, grabbing ahold of Sonic's leg as he fell downward.

Sonic's forward momentum was suddenly interrupted as he found himself falling along with Scourge.

Within seconds, the two hedgehogs were in a heap on the floor.

"Get off of me, blue!" Scourge rolled over and pushed Sonic off of himself.

"That wasn't too bad, Scourge. Not too bad." Sonic rolled over to smirk at Scourge.

The two hedgehogs lay on the floor for a few minutes, trying to regain their breath.

"So," Scourge began between breaths. "How much longer are you going to be up here?"

"Well, since I don't really plan on working for Egghead, I'll be up here until I figure a way off." Or until Shadow decided it was time to go, but he couldn't tell that to Scourge.

"So what, you've been refusing to join Egghead for…" Scourge did the math in his head. "Eight years now?"

"Eight years? I've been fighting Eggman for that long, but the first time he offered me a position in the Eggman empire was when you idiots," Sonic gave Scourge a sharp punch in his shoulder, "Ganged up on me."

"No way!" Scourge could not believe Sonic had only been offered once. Eggman had wanted him on his side for the longest time, and everything he had built was just proof of it. Was Sonic really not seeing it? "He's wanted you working for him since the day he met you."

"How would you know that? You've only been on Mobius for what, two years?"

"You really don't see it, do you?" Scourge rubbed his shoulder where Sonic had hit him.

"See what?" Eggman had spent years trying to either kill him or turn him into a robot, he saw that very clearly.

"No way, Blue, he wants you alive and in the flesh. You ever been in one of his bases or the egg fortress when it wasn't full of little robots coming to get you?"

"No." As far as Sonic was concerned, it wasn't a base or a fortress from Eggman unless there were little robots coming to get him. "What would it matter anyways? I've seen the inside of almost all his bases and both egg fortresses. I know what they look like."

"Then you'd know Eggman designs all of his places with you in mind."

"What?" Scourge must have been losing his mind. Unless he meant Egghead designed the bases with him in mind to try to stop him, Sonic could not see where he was getting these ideas from.

"Think about it, blue. Isn't it easy to get around? Like suspiciously easy to get around?"

Sonic couldn't deny that, but having super-speed certainly did help when trying to get around anywhere.

"Tell me, Blue." Scourge continued. "When Eggman floods his place to try and stop you, why would he build little air pockets too? Why would he leave holes for oxygen to pass through the ground? Robots don't breathe. Wouldn't it be much easier to just drown you and get it over with? But that's just the thing, he's not trying to kill you, he's only trying to slow you down so he can carry out whatever plan he had in mind before you get to him."

"Just a structural flaw. No one's perfect." Scourge couldn't be right, could he? Every adventure he had ever gone on involving Eggman was playing in his mind.

"Now you're just in denial. Without any traps or robots, you can get from one place to another without having to slow down at all. Why would Eggman put ledges and platforms in his own base? You think he's suddenly going to take up rock climbing? You think he's active enough to make a twenty foot jump? Why are there tunnels all over the place that are perfectly your size when you curl up into a ball? Better yet, if they weren't meant for you, why didn't Eggman just get rid of them when he saw you were using them to your advantage? Why does he keep building them into every new base he makes?"

Sonic thought intensely about everything Scourge was saying. As much as he loathed admitting it, the green hedgehog was actually making sense. All the pipes and tunnels were just the right size for him, platforms were scattered in just the right places so he could get around, and many of the robots were only equipped with minimal offensive tactics to pose no real threat to him.

Even the architecture and machinery were designed for him. The whole placed was designed for high-speed impacts and super-speed. Even small things, like Eggman's non-skid floors were making Sonic realize the truth; that Eggman really had been after him. For years.

The more he jogged his memory of the past, the more he realized how long this was going on. Even his early years with Tails in the chemical plant zone all proved that what his green counterpart was saying was true.

"It's not just you he wanted though; he also wanted the little squirt." Scourge said as if he knew what Sonic was thinking about. "That could kid rival fatso's genius. He could be useful in building new machines. That and Eggman knew the two of you were a package deal. The only way he would even have the slightest chance of getting you to agree to join him was if he agreed to let your lil' bro come too."

And he was after Tails too? Sonic suddenly didn't feel so well. His expression went from doubt to dreadful realization.

"Now you see it?" Scourge sat up, smiling at Sonic's expression.

Sonic sat up as well, at a much faster speed. Suddenly, he leaned forward and vomited.

"Gross, Blue!"

* * *

"Alright, Doctor." Shadow spoke into his communicator. "The virus has been uploaded."

"Excellent. Now it's time for Phase two of the plan. I want you to blow up the headquarters."

"What?" Did he really just hear what he thought he heard?

"You heard me! Blow the place sky high! I want you to completely obliterate the place. I don't want any part of that building left standing by the time you are done, do you hear me? Not even the foundation!"

"There are people here, Doctor." He was not going to murder a bunch of innocent soldiers just because he was told to! He was not going to do what G.U.N. did fifty years ago. "I won't do it."

"It would be a shame if something were to suddenly happen to Sonic."

Shadow's anger flew through the roof. "What did you say?" He growled. Eggman was lucky he was thousands of miles away or he would have been dead on the spot. "Are you threatening me?"

"No, not at all." Eggman used a cool and relaxed tone with Shadow when he spoke. "I'm just concerned for your precious little brother is all. He's in my workshop now and with so many tools, sharp objects, and pieces of dangerous equipment in there, it would be a shame is something was to accidentally happen to him."

Shadow remained silent, seething in rage.

"You know where the G.U.N. armory is. That building better be nothing more than a pile of rubble by the end of the morning. Contact me for instruction on phase three once you're finished."

The transmission ended.

Topaz jumped up in shock as her office door was suddenly torn off its hinges and throw down the hallway. "Shadow?" She stood up from her desk to see what was going on. "Are you okay?" Why on earth would he break down her door like that?

"You need to order an evacuation of the whole building. Right now!" He was told to destroy the building, not kill the soldiers. Shadow would be damned if he was going to stoop to such a low level of evil if he had other options.

"An evacuation? What for?" Though Shadow's tone had implied to her that there was no other option, she still had to ask.

"You are all in danger, you have to leave now!"

"Shadow, I don't have the power to do that. Even if I did, I couldn't order an evacuation just because someone told me to. G.U.N. sensors have to pick up something unusual and there have been no reported threats. You can speak with the commander, but I doubt he'll evacuate the whole building just to convince Eggman that you and Rouge are following orders. Shadow, can you at least tell me what the danger is?"

This was getting him nowhere. He needed results now. Shadow knocked Topaz out of the way as he grabbed her desk and smashed it against the wall. "Then tell your commander I'm not pretending!" Shadow grabbed the nearby file cabinet and resigned it to the same fate as the desk. "Tell him the ultimate life form has snapped and is coming for every single person in this building!"

"Shadow!" Topaz had no idea what had gotten into the black and red hedgehog. He had never acted up like this before.

"Now!" Shadow grabbed Topaz' office chair and threw it at her.

Not waiting to see what Shadow would destroy next, Topaz ran out of the office to do just as the ultimate life form had told her to do.

With Topaz out of the room and the evacuation sure to follow, Shadow began rigging the room up with explosives.

He followed this pattern down every single room in the headquarters, destroying everything in sight to scare the headquarter employees and scientists out while fighting off the remaining agents who chose to stay and try to defeat him. Of course none stood a chance and as soon as the room was cleared out he would plant more explosives.

Once the entire headquarter was cleared out and rigged to blow, he teleported himself outside.

Luckily, the headquarters was outside the city limits where the blast wouldn't cause too much damage. From his hiding place in the trees surrounding the area, Shadow pressed the button on the detonator, watching as bit by bit, the whole building came crumbling down.

All the agents and employees backed away in a panic as the explosions went off, scrambling to get out of the blast zone.

Shadow's communicator went off, signaling he was receiving a call. He answered it with a frown.

"Well done, Shadow!" Eggman congratulated without a greeting.

"Where is Sonic?" Shadow demanded, not wanting to hear what else the madman had to say. "I want to talk to him! Now!"

"Oh, fine, be like that."

Eggman's voice disappeared from the line as the radio must have been handed over to Sonic.

"Hello?" Sonic greeted/asked in confusion. Why would Shadow call him when he could just see him in person?

"Sonic? Are you alright? You're not hurt are you? How are you feeling? Eggman didn't do anything to hurt you, did he?" Shadow rapid-fired the questions at Sonic.

"Shadow, Shadow!" Sonic stopped him in his tracks, barely grasping what the other hedgehog was saying. "Relax! I'm fine. What's going on?"

"You're not hurt?" Shadow asked once more, needing a straight answer.

"Uh…no, I don't think so. Want me to count my limbs to make sure they're all there?" Sonic joked, not understanding the gravity of the situation.

Shadow sighed in relief, ignoring Sonic's jab.

"But Egghead did give me-" Sonic couldn't finish his sentence as the radio was pulled out of his grasp.

"We're postponing phase three of the operation until later. Come back to the ARK."

* * *

"Sonic!"

Said hedgehog found himself in an embrace from Shadow the moment the black and red hedgehog had laid eyes on him. "Are you alright, Shadow?" Sonic pulled away, looking Shadow in the eye. "You've been acting really strange today."

"I'm just glad to see you're okay. That's all."

Why would he not be okay? Sonic still didn't understand what triggered Shadow to suddenly be in a frenzy about it. Before he could ask any questions, Shadow had grabbed his arm and examined his wrist.

"Sonic," He asked. "What's this?" Whatever it was, it was a sleek, thin, metallic cuff with a screen on it.

"Egghead put it on me. He said it's to make sure I don't get another gallstone." Sonic touched the screen and moved his wrist over in front of Shadow to show him. "He says it keeps track of vitals and stuff." He swiped the screen, bringing up a reading of his blood pressure. Swiping again, he brought up a reading of his body temperature. "It's pretty neat, but I wish I could take it off."

"You can't take it off?" Shadow took ahold of Sonic's wrist once more to examine the device. There was an incredibly thin crevice in the metal, most likely where it had been snapped shut on the blue hedgehog's wrist, but other than that, there appeared to be no other way to remove the thin cuff.

"Shadow?" Sonic couldn't help but notice he had been strangely fascinated with the device.

With an aggravated growl, Shadow took off, leaving Sonic to wonder what that had been all about.

* * *

"Ah, welcome back, Shadow."

In a flash, Shadow had Eggman by the front of his coat. "Cut the chatter! What the hell is that thing!? What did you put on Sonic?!"

"Why it's just a vital monitor. And a pretty nifty watch too, if I might add."

Shadow let loose a chaos blast at a nearby workstation in his rage. "Don't. Play. Games. With. Me."

Dropping the act, Eggman returned the hedgehog's glare. "You're lucky there was nothing important on that table."

"Answer my question!" Shadow was running out of patience.

"Alright then, let's cut to the chase. It's a bomb."

"What!?" It took all of Shadow's willpower not to blow Eggman's head clean off his shoulders.

"I'm going to let this little incident go, but I won't tolerate any further insubordination from you, Shadow. All it takes is one click of a button and BOOM! You're an only child again."

Shadow let go of Eggman's lab coat, storming out of the office.

"Oh, and Shadow!" Eggman called out before he left the workshop. "I wouldn't try to take it off. If it senses anything unusual, it'll detonate all on its own."

* * *

**Am I the only one who noticed how suspiciously easy it is for Sonic to get around the bases? I've been playing Sonic since the genesis days, but it never really struck me how Eggman lays his bases/fortresses out so perfectly until Sonic Generations. **

**Obviously it's that way for the sake of Sonic being a video game, but that doesn't mean I can't incorporate it into story canon! **

**Review please! **


	14. Blueprints

**Brave soldier boy, comes marching home…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

Chapter Fourteen: Blueprints

"What ya' got there, Blue?" Scourge asked as he watched Sonic mess around with something on his wrist.

"It's from Egghead. A smart watch…I guess?" Sonic still wasn't sure what it really was. He was trying to mess around with it, searching for a settings option on the screen. "It's nice and all, but I'm trying to figure out how to take it off."

"Just pull it off."

"It's a little more difficult than that." He had been trying for a good twenty minutes before giving up.

"Step aside." Scourge rolled up his jacket sleeves. "You need some real muscles to do this."

"Right." Sonic rolled his eyes, but allowed Scourge to have a try.

Scourge tried his best to pull the cuff apart at the metal crease to no avail. Too stubborn to admit when he was beat, the green hedgehog forcefully continued.

It was then when Shadow entered the lounge. He immediately caught sight of Scourge attempting to remove the device.

A sudden whiplash of air struck Sonic as he suddenly found himself standing alone. He looked to the end of the room to see Shadow pinning Scourge to the wall. "Shadow!" He sped to the black and red hedgehog's side, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from Scourge. "What are you doing?!"

"Yeah, what gives, Stripes?" Scourge rubbed his head where Shadow had slammed him into the metallic walls.

Shadow just growled in frustration, knowing full well he could not tell Sonic what was on his wrist lest he risk either him or Scourge attempting some botched method at disarming it.

"Shadow," Sonic grabbed his arm, forcing the black and red hedgehog to look at him. "What's gotten into you lately? Are _you _okay?"

"I'm fine!" Shadow pulled his arm out of Sonic's grasp. Turning around, he shouted "Don't mess with that thing, Sonic! That goes for you too, Scourge!" He added as he left.

* * *

Rouge glanced upwards from her book as Shadow entered the library, visibly upset. Choosing not to acknowledge the obvious, she returned her attention to her book. Even she needed her down time.

Shadow began pacing back and forth through the library, trying to find a way out of his current predicament.

Though she tried her best to stay focused, Rouge gave a defeated sigh. Shadow would stick around until he had her attention. "No, I wasn't doing anything," She said in a sweet yet sarcastic manner, "Come on in, let me get you some tea."

"The Doctor has put a huge dent in our plans. Not only can I not get Sonic out of here, G.U.N. will no longer be helping us."

Rouge set her book down and dropped all traces of humor from her tone. "Why won't G.U.N. help us?" They had been providing support and resources for them the whole time she was up on the ARK. Why would the suddenly stop now? And for what reason?

Right. Rouge probably had no idea of what he had done that morning. "I may or may not have…destroyed the place."

"Destroyed? What do you mean destroyed?"

"I mean I rigged every room in the headquarters with C4 and blew the place off the map. The whole building is gone!"

Rouge gasped in shock. "And everyone…inside?" She knew Shadow, he would never do take innocent lives. Would he?

"I personally made sure no one was inside, but that's not the problem. The problem is that Eggman has strapped a bomb to Sonic. A bomb that's set to go off if he leaves the ARK or tries to dismantle it."

"Alright, alright. Let's relax, we can figure this out; we're just going to need some time."

"No!" Shadow shouted suddenly. "We don't have any more time. I can't risk Sonic's life! I can't be alone! Not again…" He sat down beside Rouge on the library couch and began rubbing his temples. "We're going to have to speed things up."

"We don't even know what Eggman's plans are to speed them up."

"Then we're going to have to find out. Next time the good Doctor steps out, we'll raid his workshop and try to find out what he's been doing up here all this time. We'll search for blue prints, files, clues, anything that will give us some of idea of what he had planned or any way of getting that…thing off Sonic."

* * *

Shadow slammed his fist on the metallic doors in frustration. "Why won't they open!? We've always been able to get in before!"

"Can you really blame him?" Rouge asked. "It's not too surprising that you would try to break in. The man is a genius; it's going to take a little more than just some snooping around to foil his plans."

"Then why don't you throw a whole wrench into them?"

Rouge and Shadow turned around to see Scourge standing a bit down the hall with some rolled up papers, clearly blueprints, in his hand.

"Scourge?" Rouge was surprised. It wasn't like Scourge to be of any help to them, especially if they were trying to save the world. Why would he go out of his way to get the blueprints?

"Oh come on, don't look at me like that!" He was actually doing something nice for once, couldn't they just be grateful? "You know I hate Fatso as much as the next guy."

Shadow and Rouge still stared in disbelief, not sure if Scourge was pulling their legs.

"You want these or not?" Scourge asked angrily. So much for trying to help.

Shadow suddenly appeared alongside Scourge, pulling the rolled up papers out of his hands. "Yes, we want these!" Not wasting any time, he unrolled the papers on the floor.

Rouge and Scourge kneeled down beside Shadow, observing the plans.

Rouge felt a sense of dread as she recognized the device on the papers. "I know what this is. This is…a roboticizer."

"So he wants to turn everyone on the planet into robots?" Though he had never seen one in his life, Shadow did recall hearing about this type of machine from Sonic. According to his brother, it was what Eggman was doing to everyone back in his early days of attempting to take over Mobius.

"It all makes sense now. The emeralds, the generators, the fact that he picked the ARK to orchestrate it all. It makes perfect sense." The ARK already had a massive energy bean pointed at earth, all it would take was some tweaking to get it shoot a roboticizer ray instead of the death ray Gerald had programmed it for. The second generator would provide more energy or prevent an overload depending on what was needed.

"Where is Eggman now?" Shadow asked Scourge. "What is he doing?"

"He told me he's going to initiate 'phase three' of his plans. Said he needed to destroy some satellites or something, he took a bunch of robots with him."

"The G.U.N. satellites. With the headquarters gone and a virus running amok in the national database, it'll be too difficult for the government to put up a decent military resistance against Eggman's attack." Shadow wondered why Eggman had gone to take care of the task himself rather than have him finish it himself.

"With G.U.N. in shambles, he's got the whole world in the palm of his hands. Are we going to stop him?" Rouge asked Shadow, unsure of how much of a risk he was willing to take with Sonic's life on the line.

"With everything in place, I highly doubt the Doctor will be needing us any longer. We're," Shadow took ahold of Rouge's wrist, "Going to earth to stop Eggman. That man's ego is way too big to pull off a scheme like this without gloating to the entire planet. We still have time to stop him. You," He jabbed Scourge sharply in the chest, "Are going to stay up here and not do anything stupid!"

* * *

Scourge pulled the chaos emeralds out of the heart of the ARK, a frown plastered across his face. "Don't do anything stupid, Scourge." He spoke in a high-pitched mocking voice to himself. "We're just going to ignore you, Scourge." He removed another emerald from the engine. "Don't do anything that could be of help, Scourge. We want to hog all the glory for ourselves!"

Once all the emeralds were out, Scourge turned his attention to the other devices and machines in the workshop. He didn't know what they were for, but it couldn't be anything good.

Doing what he did best, the green hedgehog curled up into a ball and began bouncing around the room, destroying everything in sight.

He stopped once all the loose machines were in pieces on the floor. Not wanting to risk bringing the ARK crashing to the planet, he avoided anything that looked like it might have been part of the life support system or anti-gravity system. Satisfied, he pulled one of the six emeralds out of his jacket. "Chaos control!"

* * *

Tails held the table leg in place as he rotated the screws on the base, securing it in place. It would be nice to finally have a table to eat from instead of taking all his meals standing or on the ground.

With the last leg on, he flipped the table right-side up.

His celebration was short-lived as a blinding flash of light suddenly announced the arrival of a guest. As soon as Tails laid eyes on the green hedgehog, he dropped everything, scooting backwards in absolute terror. "Wh-what do you want?" He asked, stuttering from nerves. He grabbed the nearest tool, a wrench, and held it up as a weapon.

"Relax, Squirt. I'm not here to hurt you."

Not believing a word he said, Tails swallowed his fear and stood up, charging for Scourge as he swung the wrench around.

Scourge side-stepped the attack easily as Tails came around again, still swinging the wrench. "Come on, Kid, I'm being serious!"

"You really think I'm going to believe anything you say?" Tails shouted back. Scourge must have been delusional to think he would welcome him back into the workshop he spent months rebuilding thanks to said hedgehog. "I'm young, not stupid!"

"Come on, don't be like that." Scourge genuinely pleaded. To be fair, he could understand Tails' reluctance. Waiting until Tails was close enough; he reached out and grabbed both of the kit's arms, wrestling the wrench out of his grasp.

In a moment of pure adrenaline and desperation, Tails leaned over and sunk his teeth directly into Scourge's arm.

Scourge shouted in pain, letting go of Tails. In his shock, he was caught off guard as Tails suddenly swung around, using his tails to send him flying out of the new window.

The green hedgehog groaned as he landed outside of the workshop. He could feel the shards of glass in his back and could feel the blood running down his quills. Unfortunately, he needed the little fox alive, so he would have to put a lid on his anger. "Fine," He growled between his teeth, "Make this hard on the both of us!"

With a roll and jump, Scourge was back inside the workshop, having entered through the broken window. Looking around, he found no trace of the young fox, save for the open back door which he had certainly used to escape.

Not wasting any time, he took off and caught up with Tails in only a second. He immediately jumped, grabbing the fox by the waist and tackling him to the ground.

Doing the only thing that had worked before, Tails took another bite out of Scourge's arm.

Gritting his teeth to prevent from letting go, he shouted. "Chaos control!"

Tails had been too preoccupied with trying to defeat Scourge, he never noticed the change in scenery. Even as Scourge let go of him, he still held on with his mouth, kicking all the while.

Their current whereabouts were the ARK library, where Sonic sat in one of the armchairs, his mouth agape in shock at the sight of Tails madly attacking Scourge.

"Get him off of me, Blue!" Scourge held his arm out, where Tails still had his teeth imbedded with his eyes shut, not wanting to see what Scourge was planning on doing to him.

With a small burst of speed, Sonic was suddenly behind Tails, gently grabbing the kit from underneath his arms, trying to pry him off. "Tails, buddy, it's okay." He spoke gently into his little brother's ear. "Don't be afraid."

Recognizing whose voice it was, Tails opened his eyes immediately and let go of Scourge. "Sonic?" Suddenly, he was in a bone crushing hug as Sonic pressed him close to him.

Immediately wrapping his arms around hisbrother, he tried his best to hold back his tears, finally happy to see Sonic alive and well. He felt his fur dampen; indicating Sonic had let his own tears flow freely.

"Yeah, don't mind me." Scourge muttered, unaware and uncaring of the deep, emotional moment occurring before him. "I'll be fine." He wiped the blood from the bite marks away.

* * *

"Stop moving, Blue!" Scourge said frantically.

Sonic sat in the library, his arm resting on a table as Tails had tools scattered all around them, attempting to disarm the bomb on his brother's wrist.

"This is a little nerve-wracking. You try knowing you might just blow up at any minute!" Sonic couldn't stop his legs from tapping and seemed to have a constant itch in his ears that started when Tails first successfully opened up the metal surrounding of the cuff.

"Sonic, if you don't stop moving, we're all going to know what it's like to be splattered across the wall." As much as Tails hated to admit it, Scourge was right. Sonic needed to relax.

"…I need to pee."

Both Tails and Scourge looked at Sonic unbelievably.

Tails sighed. "Scourge, would you go get him a bucket, please?" This whole situation would probably have been a lot less stressful if Sonic would stop distracting him and just calm down.

"What?!" Sonic cried. "I'm not going to piss in a bucket with you two watching!"

"Don't be gross, Blue!" Scourge would have slapped him upside the head had he not have to worry about accidentally triggering the bomb. "If you ever want to piss again, you'll piss in the bucket. I promise I won't watch." He added while rolling his eyes.

"Never mind," Sonic muttered. "I'll just hold it."

* * *

"Good morning, citizens of Station Square and the rest of the world!" Eggman's voice boomed on every electronic device and screen around the globe.

Rouge and Shadow jumped back suddenly as the robots they had been working on disarming suddenly came to life. Shadow grabbed Rouge's arm and jumped back even further, out of the robot's blasting range.

The remaining intact robots began marching forward, paying no mind to their destroyed brethren.

"What's the point of these robots anyways?" Rouge asked as they landed. "He doesn't need to level the city to roboticize it."

From the blue prints Scourge had stolen, they were able to see what plans Eggman had laid out in preparation for the robotization. Part of those plans included hiding robots across the city and activating them once he was ready. The two used this information to find these hidden hubs and destroy as many as they could before Eggman moved forward.

"Doesn't matter. With G.U.N. out of commission and Sonic trapped, we're going to have to be the ones to stop them." Shadow remarked as he watched the platoon of robots trample everything in their path.

"I wonder whose fault that is." Rouge nudged Shadow with a smirk on her face.

"Not now, Rouge!"

* * *

Meanwhile, on the completely other side of the city at the Mystic Ruins, Knuckles lay against the master emerald, completely unaware of what was becoming of the city. That fact was soon to change as he cracked an eye open, hearing someone calling out his name.

"Knuckles!" Amy shouted as she approached the master emerald shrine. Her need to warn Knuckles of what was going on was fulfilled when a group of robots suddenly appeared around the master emerald.

Knuckles immediately jumped up into a defensive stance. Not wasting any time, he began doing hwat he did best, punching wildly.

Amy too joined the attack as she called her Piko Piko hammer into her hand.

With only a few robots attempting to take the shrine, they were defeated quickly by the two mobians.

"What are these robots?" Knuckles asked Amy as he began picking up the remaining metallic scraps and throwing them off the edge of the shrine, into the ocean below.

"I don't know." Amy answered truthfully. "But they're appearing all over the world. Most of them are just…stationary."

"Stationary?"

"Yeah. According to the news, they're just standing in major cities around the world, including Station Square, doing nothing. Maybe they're waiting for orders to strike?"

Knuckles frowned at the oil stains left behind on the ancient rock of the shrine. He would have to come back and clean the rest of the mess up later. "Whatever they are, they can't be good. Let's get Tails; he's good with this kind of stuff. Maybe he can give us a better idea of what these robots are for."

* * *

"Tails?" Amy called as she stepped into the front door, which had been left wide open.

Dread had immediately filled Knuckles and Amy as they had approached the workshop. Though Tails has made amazing progress in restoring the structure, the shattered window had immediately tipped them off to some foul play.

Inside, Amy could see Tails' tools and supplies strewn about in a mess on the floor. The table the kit had recently purchased had been smashed in half and thrown aside.

"What happened here?" Knuckles asked, surprised to see the place in ruins again.

Amy approached the shattered window when a piece of fabric caught her eye. Grabbing the piece of black cloth, she knew exactly what had happened. "Scourge," She turned to show Knuckles what she had found, "He came back to finish the job."

"That bastard!" Knuckles was so angry, he could have smashed another hole right in the wall of the workshop.

Tremors shook the ground as an explosion was heard nearby.

"What now?" Amy asked, not believing so many bad things were happening in such close proximity to each other.

The two mobians ran outside to see the nearby train station on fire.

"Eggman." Knuckles said between clenched teeth. "He must be trying to trap us here so we can't stop him." With him and Amy unable to use chaos control, they would have to rely on the train to get them to the city. "Whatever happened to Tails, we'll have to figure out later. Right now, we have to stop that Egghead before he destroys the city and our only way there!"

* * *

**Woohoo, alright. I'm just really happy to have gotten this far with this fic. It's been so long since I wrote a multi-chapter story. **

**Review please! **


	15. Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Saving The World

**I've requested time off of work for 2018. It's never too early, right?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating stories.**

* * *

Chapter Fifteen: Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Saving The World

Outside of Station Square, Rouge and Shadow continued to destroy the massive robot army, or at least attempted to. As soon as the stationary robots had sensed they were under attack, reinforcements had arrived to stop them.

Luckily for the duo, reinforcement for them had arrived as well. Scattered G.U.N. agents and members of the Station Square police force had joined the scuffle, using their own weapons and technology to retaliate against Eggman's robots.

"Look at the bright side," Rouge said to Shadow between heavy, exhausted breaths, "At least they're not attacking us." Considering what Shadow had done, she was genuinely surprised she was not dodging bullets from her fellow agents.

Shadow landed from an attack, his back directly to Rouge's. "They must be desperate for help." With G.U.N. communications down completely, there was no way any orders could have been issued. The agents must have taken it upon themselves to stop Eggman. "I'm not complaining."

The two split up once more and launched themselves forward into an attack. As they progressed from robot to robot, Rouge saw Shadow motioning towards the sky. Jumping off her latest destroyed enemy, she grabbed Shadow's outstretched arm and spread her wings, flying upwards.

Landing on a nearby rooftop, Rouge let go of Shadow's arm before dropping herself into a crouch on the building. "What's the plan, boss?" She asked as she dusted her boots off.

"The police and G.U.N. can handle those robots. We need to stop the rest of the platoons from destroying the city. Where is the next closest attack?"

An explosion was suddenly felt as parts of the street flew up from the ground directly besides the building they were perched on.

"Well, that looks like it came from the subway." Rouge said as she looked over the edge of the building to see the smoke rising from the cavern that had opened up after the explosion.

Another explosion farther off caught her attention as people ran screaming in the opposite direction. "Look at that, I'm sure that's Twinkle Park."

Another explosion. "And look over there, I think that's the train station. Take your pick."

Shadow growled in frustration. "We can't win like this. We can't stop these robots alone, and that's only considering the robots in Station Square! Eggman has been planning this attack for months, who knows how many there are around the planet?!" The ebony hedgehog paced around the rooftop for a few moments, thinking the situation over. "What should we do?" He asked his partner, unable to come up with an answer to the problem himself.

"Well…" Rouge began, knowing Shadow would most likely not approve of her solution. "The robots are all receiving their orders from one place. If we shut that place down, the robots should all stop." Reaching into her pocket, she removed a small device from.

Shadow looked at the small metal device, knowing exactly what it was. It was the detonator for the generator they had given Eggman from G.U.N. The one that would blow the ARK right out of the sky. "No!" He shouted loudly and suddenly, causing Rouge to flinch. "I'm sorry." He quickly apologized, not intending to take it out on his partner. "I just don't think we should be taking drastic measures just yet."

Sonic was still up on the ARK. Rouge knew Shadow would give anything not to lose him. She watched as Shadow stopped his pacing and simply observed the destruction of the city.

"Do you think any less of me?" The red and black hedgehog asked softly. "Do you think I'm evil for choosing my own family over the lives of billions of people?" Maybe what the previous G.U.N. commander had said about him was true. He had the blood of Black Doom flowing through his veins; maybe he really was a monster. "Do you think I'm a monster?"

Rouge was certainly surprised by the question. Since when was Shadow so concerned about what others thought? "Shadow, I told you I'd follow you to the end of the world and I meant it. You're my most trusted friend, and if you decide to let Eggman take over this planet, then I'll hold to my word." She approached him and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. "Whatever choice you make, I'll be right behind you."

Shadow sighed. "Let's keep going for now. We know Eggman is somewhere here in the city. If we can find him, we may have a chance at stopping his plans completely. Let G.U.N. and the police handle the robots for now."

* * *

Tails took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. This was it, the final wire, the make or break of the device. Either one of two things could happen. One, the device would finally be deactivated. Two, the three of them would become nothing more than a distant memory splattered across the ARK's wall.

Making the final cut, Tails could have jumped up and down.

The device deactivated as the cuff split open, falling right off of Sonic's wrist.

"Alright!" Scourge gave Tails a somewhat painful congratulatory slap on the back. "Let's go!"

But Sonic had already sped out of the room, shouting to the others "Hold on, I really gotta pee!" In a flash, he was back. "Okay, now we're good."

Scourge grabbed ahold of the two mobians. "Chaos control!"

Suddenly, the three of them were standing in heart of Station Square.

"Alright, what's the plan?" Sonic asked, amused but willing to let Scourge take the lead in saving the world for once.

"I'm going to take squirt here and find Eggman. You go Sind stripes; Bats is probably with him."

"Sounds like a plan!" Sonic wasted no time taking off in search of the other hedgehog.

* * *

Rouge flew overhead through the city as Shadow ran along beside her, jumping from building to building in order to keep up.

Just as they neared the edge of the city, Shadow's communicator went off. Motioning to Rouge, he jumped off the skyscraper and ran out of the city streets onto the beach, stopping on the abandoned Emerald Coast. Once Rouge landed beside him, he answered the call.

"Shadow!" Eggman's voice snapped angirly without a greeting. "Quit messing around with Rouge at the beach and get over here! I have a mission for you! I'm at the TV Station!" The transmission ended.

The two looked at each other for the next step.

"You go see what he wants." Rouge instructed. "Now that we know where he is, we can stop him. I'll go find Knuckles and the others. Give me a call once you're ready to strike."

Shadow nodded. "Chaos control."

* * *

"Ah, Shadow, how good of you to finally come around. And all this time I thought Scourge was the lazy one around here."

"What do you need, doctor?" Shadow asked curtly, not in the mood for his fake pleasantries.

"It's not what I need, but what you need." Eggman said with a sick smile on his face. "Here. You'll need this."

Shadow caught something as it was thrown at him. Looking at his hands, he saw the last thing he wanted to hold. It was a gun. "Why would I need this?"

"For your mission. You're going to assassinate the president."

Of course he would send him on that sort of mission. Eggman did not need the president dead, it was just another way of checking how loyal he was to him, not that needed to, seeing as he still had Sonic captive aboard the ARK.

"He's in the city now." Eggman continued. "There's a panic room in the Station Square bank headquarters building, that's most likely where his guards are taking him now. Intercept the entourage and take him down. And no funny business! I want that man six feet under or you can get used to being an only child again, do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'll be taking care of the other…problems. Notify me as soon as you're done."

* * *

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the hero brigade."

Amy and Knuckles stopped in their tracks as soon as they heard Eggman's voice. The two found themselves having to regain their balance as the ground shook and a massive silver robot landed in front of them, cracking the street underneath its feet.

"Great, what are you up to now, Eggman?" Knuckles waved his fists menacingly at the evil doctor and his metallic creation.

"I'm just a simple man with a simple dream to take over the world. And here I find two annoying little pains in my side trying to crush my simple dream!" Eggman controlled the robot from his floating pod, maneuvering it towards Amy and Knuckles.

The two jumped out of the way as the robot's arm swung towards them, attempting to knock them over. The arm continued to swing, smashing into the nearest light pole. They ran once more to avoid being crushed by the falling pole, watching as it smashed a car instead.

"Hold still, you little rats!" Eggman didn't hold back this time, launching several bullets and a missile from the robot at the two.

Not waiting for the megalomaniac to finally land a hit on them, Amy swung her hammer as she charged, attempting to knock the robot off its feet. Unfortunately for her, the robot remained upright, with a small dent in its legs as the only proof she had ever attacked.

Knuckles tried his luck with an attack, aiming for the robot's chest this time. Jumping upwards to reach its height, he began pummeling away with his fists, only stopping when his arms were too tired to attack any longer. Jumping backwards, away from the robot, Knuckles frowned when he saw what little damage he inflicted upon the robot himself. "What?!"

"Your little tricks aren't going to work this time!" Eggman gave his usual high pitched laugh as he sent the robot on another rampage, smashing into all the nearby buildings.

Knuckles and Amy began scrambling, trying to dodge the rain of massive debris falling on them from the destroyed structures.

As quick footed as she was, there were only so many directions Amy could jump around in before she was struck by a rather large piece of concrete on her shoulder, knocking her to the ground. She watched from the pavement as Eggman's robot smashed into yet another building. Looking over to find Knuckles, she saw he too had no luck as he lay on the ground, his hands over his head trying to shield himself from the debris.

Eggman laughed, intentionally causing as much damage as he could in front of Amy and Knuckles, knowing they couldn't stop him at this point.

The two mobians had been struggling to fight off Eggman's current robotic monster, but between all the fighting they did to get to the city from the Mystic Ruins and all the running around saving citizens, they were absolutely exhausted.

Ignoring the pain in her body, Amy forced herself back up as Knuckles did the same.

"You can still run now if you'd like!" Eggman offered, watching the pitiful scene before him.

"Same to you!" Knuckles shouted back as he ran forward. He aimed for the robot, but missed as Eggman simply had it side-step the attack. A crater formed in the ground as Knuckles struck the concrete with full force.

"I think I've had enough of this." Eggman's pod flew upwards, closer to the shoulder of the massive robot. "Time to end it all!"

The robot's mechanical arm pointed towards the exhausted echidna as it began to change, shifting from a mechanical claw to a cannon. The cannon lit up, charging to fire.

In a flash, something green flew directly into the cannon.

Suddenly, the arm exploded, flying clean off the robot's shoulders.

Shocked, Amy and Knuckles stepped back, braced for a surprise attack.

Out from the smoke and debris, a green ball bounced out and unrolled, revealing Scourge. The green hedgehog coughed and walked around, completely disoriented from taking the blast head-on.

"Scourge?" Amy asked, confused. Why had he attacked Eggman's robot. Wasn't he working with him?

"Don't mind me," Scourge tripped over his own two feet in dizzy state, falling forward, "I'm just trying to save the world."

Calling her hammer to her hand, Amy held it up, ready for attack. She approached cautiously, fully intending to strike the hedgehog.

Knuckles also walked over, poised to attack.

"No! Amy, Knuckles, stop!"

Recognizing the voice, both mobians stopped and looked behind them to see a yellow fox flying in from overhead.

"Tails!" Ignoring the war zone before them, both ran over to greet the fox kit as he landed. "You're okay!"

"Yeah, I'm fine, but don't hurt Scourge!" The young kit never thought he would ever be saying that sentence in his life. "He's not working with Eggman!"

"What?!" Knuckles asked. "He kidnapped you! What did he do with you?" Had he really managed to brainwash Tails in such a short amount of time? Why would Tails not want them to attack him?

"We saved Sonic! Scourge just needed my help to do it! Don't hurt him!" Tails continued pleading.

Bewildered, Amy left the group, running up to Scourge. She rolled him over, checking to make sure he was still alive as he hadn't moved since falling over. Aside from his usual two scars, he only had some minor burns on his fur. "You're lucky; your quills took most of the attack. Not that it changes the fact what you did was flat out stupid and suicidal." She told him.

Scourged coughed some more, his lungs still filled with smoke. "Oh I see. When Sonic does it, he's 'heroic' and 'brave.' When I do it, I'm 'stupid' and 'suicidal.' Sorry me saving your life isn't good enough for you."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Okay, sorry. Thank you for saving our lives." She put a heavy sarcastic tone on the gratitude. "I'm just not used to seeing you do something not completely selfish."

"Scourge, you little rat!" Eggman yelled out from his floating egg pod, completely enraged. "What's the meaning of this?!"

Using Amy to support himself, Scourge held onto her shoulder as he pulled himself up into a standing position. "Sorry, Fatso, but I've grown bored of you and this scheme. Blue's a little busy right now, so I'm going to have to stop you myself."

"If you guys saved Sonic, where is he now?" Knuckles asked, as he and Tails were still away from the main battle and out of Eggman's hearing range.

"He's looking for Shadow right now. I came here with Scourge to find you guys and stop Eggman."

"Alright then." Knuckles cracked his fists together. Scourge may not have been his best buddy, but there was no denying a super-speed hedgehog on their side would have been really helpful at the moment. "Let's do this."

Eggman growled angrily. He pulled out his walkie-talkie, using it to call Shadow once more. "Shadow, come take care of this traitorous scum at once!"

* * *

Shadow ran silently behind the president's armored limousine, out of sight.

Eggman had been right; it appeared the president's secret agents were taking him to the headquarters building of Station Square bank.

The limousine pulled up to the building as the agents quickly cleared the area. Opening the door for him, they quickly ushered the president into the building.

Knowing the building's emergency defenses would be activated the moment the president was secured, Shadow wasted no time. He quickly slipped into the building through an open window a few floors up. Sure enough, seconds later, metallic doors slipped shut behind him, covering the glass which was the window and his entrance.

He couldn't have the building shut down completely; he would need a way out. Choosing to ignore the president's entourage for the moment, he skated at top speed through the building in search of the control room. Finding the security system, he quickly knocked out the guard overseeing the shut-down before he could call for help.

With one good solid punch to the main drive, Shadow stopped the security system before it could seal off all the windows in the building. With an escape route secured, he ran back towards the entourage.

The group had not yet reached the panic room, making easy targets for Shadow. As soon as he was close enough, he jumped and began his assault. Using one swift, sharp attack per agent, he knocked out the entire guard in the blink of an eye; before they could figure out they were even under attack.

In a moment, it was only the president and Shadow left standing in the hallway.

Adrenaline pumping through him as he feared for his life, the president turned and ran for the nearest office, only putting himself into a dead end.

With a sigh, Shadow calmly entered the office.

"Shadow?" The president asked, trying to keep his voice straight. "What are you doing? Where is agent Rouge?"

"She's attempting to eliminate the robots, sir."

"I am aware of the undercover mission the two of you are on. Are you doing this to convince Eggman you are still loyal to him?"

"Yes, sir."

"What exactly is it then? Why did you knock out my entire guard? What is it you need to do?"

"Something I wish I didn't have to." Shadow drew the gun and pointed it directly at the president. "I'm sorry, sir."

* * *

**Oh no, Shadow! What are you going to do?! **

**People have asked me about why I wrote Rouge the way I did. In both the games and show, Rouge doesn't have a real "Good/Bad" alignment. She does what she wants and offers her services to the highest bidder.**

**No matter what side she's on, she's always with Shadow. As I said before, no romance in this fic, just as there is no romance between them in the games. Just a close friendship and fierce loyalty. **

**Review Please! **


	16. Fixing This Mess

**It's only life, it's only natural. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

Chapter Sixteen: Fixing This Mess

Sonic ran through Station Square in search of Shadow. With his speed, it should have been no problem at all to find him, but the blue speedster found himself having to make continuous stops, be it to save a citizen in danger or stop a stray robot here and there. After a good half-hour, he finally spotted the red and black hedgehog tailing what he knew was the president's limousine.

Mildly curious, Sonic hung back even further, wondering what Shadow was doing. He watched as Shadow tailed the guards, sneaking around the back of the building and climbing into a window.

Within moments, steel doors appeared behind the normal glass sliding ones, sealing off the entrance. Steel coverings began appearing on the windows and all other entrances to the building before suddenly stopping.

Sonic smiled at his luck. Jumping onto the building directly across from the bank headquarters, he began ricocheting back and forth between the two buildings until he was half-way up the sky-scraper, in front of the first unsealed window. He felt around the window, in search of a way to open. Seeing as there was not one, Sonic jumped back across to the adjacent building. Curling up into a ball, he rolled in place for a bit, building momentum before launching himself into the unsealed window of the headquarters, smashing it to pieces.

As soon as he was in, he took off down the hall. Running up and down every flight of stairs, he searched every office, every cubicle, every meeting room he could find. Just as he ran through the hall of the twenty-seventh floor, he caught a glimpse of two figures in an office, one roughly his height whom could only be Shadow. What made his heart jump the most was the fact Shadow was holding a gun at the president. Making a U-turn, Sonic burst into the office, jumping directly at Shadow and tackling him to the ground. "Shads, no!"

The two hedgehogs slammed into the wall as Sonic maintained his grip on Shadow's waist.

Getting his bearings back, Shadow looked down to see what had suddenly knocked him off his feet. "Sonic?" Dumbfounded and surprised to see his little brother with him and not on the ARK, it took a moment for the information to process. Once the initial shock faded away, Shadow grabbed Sonic and pulled him into a rib-crushing hug. He pushed Sonic away after a moment, still holding onto the blue hedgehog's shoulders. "How…What…?" He grabbed Sonic's wrist and turned it over. The bomb was gone. He pulled him into another hug.

"Okay. I get it, Shads. I'm happy to see you too." Sonic pulled out of Shadow's grasp.

"What are you doing here?" Shadow asked, still unclear of how Sonic escaped the ARK and managed to remove the device without blowing himself up into thousands of pieces.

"What am I doing here?!" Sonic asked his a sharp yet hushed tone. "What are you doing here?! And what is this?!" He picked up the gun from the floor and held it up. "What is this, Shadow!?" He asked once more.

"It's…" Shadow looked over to the president who was trying to listen in to their conversation. "A bit of a long story."

"We're fixing this, Shadow. Now!" Sonic stood up, grabbing Shadow's arm and forcing him up along with him. He dragged him along to where the president was seated on the office floor. "Sorry about this, Mr. President, sir." Sonic began. "There was a bit of a miscommunication between me and my friend here, but we've got it all sorted out now. Right, Shads?" He gave him a jab in the side with his elbow.

"Err, right." Shadow played along, not knowing where Sonic was going with this.

Sonic leaned over and whispered into Shadow's ear. "Go help him up!"

Shadow walked forward and awkwardly extended his hand to the president. "Let me give you a hand, sir."

Unsurprisingly, the president did not accept his offer. The hedgehog had held a gun to his face, for all he knew there was still something else hidden up his sleeve.

Noticing the president was not going to cooperate with Shadow, Sonic stepped forward and pulled the president to his feet. "It's best if you stay here, sir." Sonic instructed him. "If we find any G.U.N. agents, we'll send them your way. Meanwhile, Shadow and I will go clean up the mess outside, save the world, you know, do what we do best."

"Of course." The president straightened his suit jacket out and cleared his voice, trying to regain his authoritative air. "Please, save the people of Station Square and the rest of the world."

"Will do, Mr. President." Sonic gave him a salute. "Now, if you'll excuse us-"

"Oh, Shadow." The president stopped Sonic before he could take off.

"Yes, sir?"

"I expect to have a meeting with you and agent Rouge as soon as this ordeal is over."

"He'll be there, don't you worry, sir. You have my word." Sonic answered. He grabbed Shadow's shoulders and physically turned him around, forcefully pushing into his back to march him out of the room.

As soon as they were out of ear-shot, Shadow turned around and moved Sonic's hands away from himself. "I'm really happy to see you're okay, Sonic, but you still haven't told me what you are doing here."

"I'm saving the world, Shadow." Sonic stopped in his tracks, taking on a more serious tone. "Now either one of two things is going to happen. Either you're going to fight with me to take down Eggman." He moved his feet so he was in an attack-ready position, arms up and ready to strike as well. "Or you're going to fight against me."

Shadow put his hand over Sonic's fist, pushing it down. "I'm on your side, Sonic, I'm not going to fight you." He would be the stubborn hero until the end; he knew that much for sure.

Sonic dropped the serious act, a smile spreading across his face. "Great, come on!" In a flash, he had run to the end of the hall and smashed another window open to exit the building.

Shadow followed after, catching up with Sonic.

"So, what's Egghead's grand scheme this time?" Sonic asked as soon as Shadow was at his side.

"Eggman's turned the ARK into once massive roboticizer, pointed directly towards the planet. In the meantime, he's launched a robot invasion of the whole planet; probably trying to make sure no one can launch a decent counter attack against him. He's already destroyed G.U.N. communication satellites, so most of the military is running around blind at the moment."

"No, it's not an invasion." Sonic had seen this before on Mobius. He knew exactly what Eggman was truly planning to do. "He's not even trying to roboticize the planet. Shadow, do you know what happens if you try to roboticize a robot?"

"No." He had never even seen someone be roboticized.

"It explodes. And not a little short-circuit or anything, we're talking a huge explosion. All the robots here are not to invade or prevent a counter attack, they're to serve as massive, easy to make bombs. Eggman's not going to roboticize the planet; he's going to level it so he can build his empire on top of the remains."

"You're sure of this?" Shadow asked.

"Definitely. I've stopped this scheme before, and I'll stop it again." Hopefully, this time, no one will be roboticized in the process. "Where is the Egghead now?"

Shadow's communicator went off as both heard Eggman's voice. "Shadow, come take care of this traitorous scum at once!"

Sonic smirked. "Alright then, let's go!"

* * *

Even Tails had to smile as he watched Scourge completely obliterate Eggman's robot.

From the original damage he had caused in the arm, Scourge had curled himself into a ball and entered the robot's inside through the whole left behind from the cannon blast. Once inside, he had simply bounced around, destroying all internal wiring and circuit boards.

"I'm not late to the party, am I?"

Amy, Knuckles, and Tails turned to greet Rouge as she landed.

"Afraid so." Knuckles answered. "Scourge's got this pretty under control."

As soon as he was satisfied the robot was down, Scourge bust out through the top, blowing the robot's head off in the process.

"Scourge!" Eggman shouted. At the moment, it was the most he could do. It wasn't like he had the physical prowess to fight Scourge himself.

"Shouldn't have let me into the workshop while you were building this thing, fatso." Scourge taunted as soon as he was back on his feet. "Rule one, never trust anyone. 'Sup, bats." He nodded towards Rouge in greeting momentarily before returning his attention to Eggman.

He never saw it coming. In an instant, Eggman found himself falling out of his floating egg pod. When he hit the ground, he immediately rolled over to see what had struck him.

"Miss me, Egghead?" Sonic asked as he stood in the floating pod, a huge smirk across his face.

"What?!" Eggman sat up and shouted. "How did you get off the ARK? And how are you still in once piece?"

"I had a little help from Scourge."

"You're welcome, by the way!" Scourge shouted to Sonic.

Eggman growled as he saw Shadow arrive at the scene. "I don't suppose you've turned against me too, have you?"

"I was never really with you to start." There was some truth in it. Shadow had only joined for journal pages, not because he agreed with what the insane scientist was doing.

"It doesn't matter. I don't need your help any longer. My robots are in place." Eggman pulled a remote device from the inside of his jacket. "Let the destruction begin!" He pushed the button to activate the roboticizer.

The group stood around, waiting for something to happen.

"Oh, yeah, about that." Scourge spoke up. He reached into his jacket and removed six chaos emeralds, dumping them on the ground. "You may be a little short on power."

Sonic laughed, maneuvering the floating pod on a crash course with the ground. He jumped off before it hit the ground in and burst into flames. "If you couldn't pull this off on Mobius with all your resources and little minions, and your massive bases and strongholds, what made you think you could pull it off here?"

"I had Shadow and Scourge, and eventually I was supposed to have you. You three would have trumped everything I had on Mobius, but it doesn't matter. I'm going to level the planet one way or another." Eggman reached into his jacket one more to pull out yet another remote this device, only this time, it was more familiar.

Rouge felt a wave of shock pass through her as she saw the detonator give to her by the G.U.N. scientist in Eggman's hands. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her own detonator and smashed it open with force. Inside, she found dud parts. Hers was fake.

"You're not the only sneaky one around here, Rouge." Eggman pressed the button. "I know how that faulty generator you gave me works. It may not have the emeralds connected to it, but it no doubt had enough energy stored to perform its main task."

"What did he do?" Tails asked Rouge.

"Shadow and I gave Eggman a fake generator that was meant to blow up the ARK in the event of an emergency. It was meant to hook up with the chaos emeralds and destroy the ARK completely. It'll still blow the ARK up but without the emeralds, it won't do the job completely."

"Meaning," Eggman cut her off, wanting to reveal his true plans himself. "The ARK will split apart and come hurtling towards earth in several pieces, scattering all over the planet. The impact of each piece alone will be enough to destroy an entire city."

"Great, it's countdown to chaos all over again." Knuckles muttered, remembering how much trouble him and the others went through the first time they had to stop the ARK from hurtling towards the earth.

"Dr. Eggman, you are under arrest. Put your hands up behind your head!" An entourage of G.U.N. agents swarmed the area, all circling around Eggman to ensure he couldn't escape with Topaz at the lead.

Eggman let out his high-pitched laugh. "You can arrest me now, but it won't save your precious city!"

"Don't sweat it, Topaz." Sonic told her with his usual smile. "That's what Shadow and I are for. We'll take care of it, right Shads?"

Shadow nodded, removing his chaos emerald, giving them seven in total.

"Glad to see you're with us, Shadow."

The seven chaos emerald began reacting with each other, lighting up and circling both Shadow and Sonic. In a flash of light, both hedgehogs had turned a bright golden color as massive amount of chaos energy flowed through them.

"This should be much easier than last time." Even Topaz recalled her involvement in the last ARK mission they all went on as a group. "With the ARK already in pieces, all you need to do is break it up even further so it can burn up in the earth's atmosphere. There's no point in returning it to orbit as it does not serve any purpose."

"I think we can handle that." Sonic grabbed Shadow's arm.

"Good luck." Topaz saluted them.

In a flash, Sonic and Shadow were soaring through the sky, passing harmlessly though the earth's atmosphere thanks to their chaos powers.

"You've been off the ARK for a total of what now?" Shadow asked Sonic as he pulled his arm out of his grasp. "Twenty minutes?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So you've been pretty pushy for all twenty of those minutes." Shadow let out a blast of chaos energy, smashing one of the larger pieces in half.

Sonic laughed as he flew off to smash another piece of the ARK, shouting back. "Well someone has to fix this mess! I thought we agreed it was going to be us!"

Within minutes, the two hedgehogs had smashed apart nearly every large chunk of the ark, leaving only smaller pieces behind that would surely burn up upon entering the atmosphere.

"Brings back good memories, doesn't it?" Sonic called to Shadow as he rejoined him for the decent back to earth.

"Only you would consider a life-or-death situation a good memory."

"Any memory with a friend, even if it involves being trapped up in space for months, is still a good memory in my book."

Of course, Sonic just had to stab him in the heart, didn't he? "Let's split up. I'll take this hemisphere, you take that hemisphere. Make sure everything burns to crisp. I'll meet you back in Station Square. Make sure you land off emerald coast or it's going to be in for one painful homecoming."

Before Sonic had a chance to say anything, Shadow took off.

The two split up, circling the planet a break neck speeds, smashing the already small pieces of the ARK apart even further for good measure.

Satisfied with his work, Shadow prepared himself to land. Positioning himself so he would land in the ocean water, the black and red hedgehog simply allowed himself to free fall towards the planet as the effects of the chaos emeralds wore off.

Suddenly, Shadow felt something slam directly into him and latch on. He didn't even need to check to know it was Sonic, as the hedgehog had taken to doing that quite a bit recently. "Sonic, what are you doing?" He asked.

The golden glow faded from the two hedgehogs as soon as they were safely in the planet's stratosphere.

"Uhh…not much. What's up with you?" Sonic's grip on Shadow arm suddenly grew tighter as they neared the surface.

"Sonic, you need to let go, we're going to impact soon."

"No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!" Was all Sonic said before they hit the ocean water with a massive splash.

Underneath the water, Shadow felt every bit of Sonic's weight as the blue hedgehog panicked, pulling them down even further. Was he trying to drown them both?

Using all his strength, Shadow kept kicking as hard as he could until the two of them broke the surface of the water. "Sonic! What are you doing?!" He was almost temped to kick his brother right off of him and throw him back into the water.

Sonic wrapped his arms firmly around Shadow's shoulders, holding on for dear life. "I can't swim! Get me out of here! For the love of Chaos, get me out of here!"

Oh, right. With a sigh, Shadow began swimming towards the shore with Sonic in tow.

* * *

**The world is safe again, yay! **

**Review please! **


	17. The Truth

**Ahhh, the last chapter. My favorite.**

**Disclaimer: I do not now Sonic the hedgehog or other relating characters.**

* * *

Chapter Seventeen: The Truth

"Sonic!" Amy cried out as soon as the blue hedgehog was on the shore, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a spine-shattering hug. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Ames…can't…breathe!"

"I just missed you so much!" The pink hedgehog refused to release her grip on Sonic.

Using all his remaining strength, Sonic was finally able to pull away, gasping for air. "You saw me earlier! We already went through this!"

Meanwhile, Shadow was only now climbing out of the ocean water, having not panicked at the sight of it and used his super-speed abilities to get to land as soon as his feet could touch something solid.

As soon as he was out, Rouge threw a towel over his shoulders.

"Emerald Resort?" Shadow asked, noticing the logo on the towel. Had Rouge really raided their linen closet?

Grabbing one end of the towel, Rouge threw it over Shadow's face playfully. "I'm sure they won't mind if the two hedgehogs who just saved their lives and their home planet borrowed a couple of towels." She threw the other towel in her arm to Amy who insisted of toweling Sonic off herself.

"Job well done, Gentlemen." Topaz congratulated as she approached the group of mobians. "We have Eggman in custody and he's on his way to Station Square prison as we speak."

"Oh yeah," Sonic spoke up as Amy dried the quills on his head, "We were supposed to tell you, the president is in the Station Square bank headquarters building."

"I'll send some agents to pick him up; it'll be one less thing on my to-do list."

"Speaking of to-do lists," Rouge said quietly to Shadow, "I think you and Sonic are long overdue for a chat."

Shadow sighed, knowing he could not possible put it off any longer at this point. "I suppose you're right."

"You and Sonic stay here and rest. You've earned it." Rouge said louder this time, so everyone in the group could here. "I'll take Scourge and go with Topaz to retrieve the president." She turned away from Shadow to the others. "The rest of you should go on up to the Mystic Ruins. With the train line down, who knows how many civilians got stranded there." Knowing Shadow had an increased sense of hearing, she quickly muttered under her breath "Don't mess this up, Shadow."

Sonic and Shadow stood at the beach, watching as the group dispersed. Once they were gone, Shadow put his arm on Sonic's shoulder and directed him towards the sand. "Come on, Sonic. Let's sit down. We need to talk."

"What is it? Are you finally going to tell me what you couldn't tell me on the ARK?" Sonic seated himself down on the sand and wrapped the towel around his shoulders.

"Yes, but first, I want you to read these." Shadow drew out the few pages from Gerald's journal he had. "I'll explain everything after that."

* * *

The both of them sat there for a while in complete silence on the sand as Sonic read through the papers multiple times.

After what felt like an eternity to Shadow, Sonic finally looked up from the journal pages and spoke. "So we're brothers, huh?"

"Yes."

"Did you know this when you and Scourge kidnapped me?" Sonic's voice held absolutely no trace of his happy-go-lucky nature.

"No, I only found out after, and I'm sorry-" Shadow stopped when he saw Sonic hold his hand up.

"Did you ever get the rest of the journal pages?"

"No. They were most likely destroyed along with the ARK."

"And you're okay with that?" Sonic knew how long Shadow had spent trying to find the pieces to his past. How could he have let it go so easily?

Shadow was silent for a moment as he gained his composure. "I've spent so much time trying to learn the truth about what happened fifty years ago, about why I couldn't remember much that I couldn't see what was in front of me. Even when I learned you were my brother, I left you up on the ARK and put you at risk all so I could selfishly fulfill that goal. It wasn't until Eggman strapped that bomb onto you that I realized what was really important. I was fighting so hard for a chance to remember the family I had in the past that I was going to lose the family I had in the present. I'm sorry it took me so long to realize this. I'm sorry you had to go through this whole ordeal. I'm sorry I left you to be Eggman's prisoner for so long, but I swear, I'll do whatever it takes to right this. You're my only family, Sonic. I'm not going to lose you."

Sonic gave Shadow a small smile. "I guess this explains why I can't remember anything before my parents found me in the mountains all those years ago." He had never really been 'alive' before he was three. "I'm still confused though. If we were both ejected from the ARK fifty years ago, how did we end up on two completely different planets in different dimensions?"

"Rouge and I did some research up there and here's what we pieced together. G.U.N. had said Maria ejected two pods towards earth, but only one was ever recovered."

"That was the pod you were in, right?"

"Right. The reason your pod was never found was because Maria had not ejected it towards earth like we had originally thought, she had sent it through the portal to Mobius long before I had found her during the attack."

"You guys had a portal to Mobius?" Sonic asked. He never recalled seeing a portal while on the ARK, but then again, he was restricted to only a few parts of the space station.

"It was more of a dimensional transporter; we just called it a portal. It was part of the ground-breaking research Gerald was doing at the time and it was also how he got the genetic material to make us, or at least the half that isn't from Black Doom. It's also how Eggman got to Mobius. You never found it strange he was the only human in your entire world?"

"Not really. We kind of just assumed he was a mutated ape or something."

"I knew Eggman when he was still young on the ARK. He was only a few years older than Maria. He was working with his grandfather, Gerald, to discover interdimensional transportation. He would use the transporter to venture into your world to see what it was like, what was different, and conduct various experiments for Gerald. Unfortunately, the transporter has to be programmed to open from earth; it cannot be opened from Mobius. When G.U.N. attacked, Eggman was on Mobius. With no one to open the portal for him, he was trapped in your dimension. You can fill in the rest of the story."

There was another pause as Sonic processed this new information.

"Oh gosh." Sonic said as a strange look came over his face.

"What is it?" Shadow asked, wondering what could have caused that reaction in his younger brother.

"This means I'm half alien!"

"What's so bad about that? I'm half alien too and that's never seemed to bother you."

"That's because it's your body, not mine! What do my insides look like? I'm not going to grow tentacles out of my back or a third arm, or something, am I?" Sonic asked in a panicked tone.

Shadow could have just rolled his eyes at the question. "If you haven't grown any extra parts at this point, I doubt you'll be growing them any time soon. As for your insides, Eggman already cut you open and had a look, it looks like a normal hedgehog's, but if you insist, I can cut you open myself so you can have a look."

"No thanks, I'll take your word for it. But does this mean I'm immortal?"

"Yes. You won't be getting any older than you are now."

The two were silent for several minutes after that as they watched the sun set from their spots on the beach.

Sonic was amazed, confused, and frightened by the news of his immortality all at the same time. He would never have to worry about aging and not being able to run anymore, but what about his friends? They would continue to age and eventually die. Someday, he was going to have to bury Tails.

"How do you think Tails is going to talk the news?" Shadow spoke up, noticing the worried look on Sonic's face. He knew the young fox was very close to Sonic. The kit had never had to share the blue hedgehog's attention with anyone else before and now he was going to come waltzing into the scene.

"It's probably going to be hard for him at first, for all of us, but we'll get through this." Sonic calmed his self and held up his fist to Shadow, indicated he wanted a fist bump. "As a family."

Shadow gave a genuine smile and raised his own fist, bumping Sonic's.

* * *

_3 Months Later_

Sonic climbed out of the back of the fighter plane as he finished putting away the last of their supplies. He shut the hatch of the cargo space and slid down from the plane, landing on the runway beside Shadow and Rouge. "Tails, come on!" He shouted towards the workshop. They were all ready to go except for the kit who had been working on some project inside.

"Are you guys sure you don't want me to tag along?" Rouge asked the two hedgehogs.

"Nah," Sonic responded. "It'll be easy; the three of us can handle it on our own." The mission itself was simple. All they had to do was fly around the world and clean up all the leftover robots from Eggman's attempt to blow up the world, but the real reason he insisted on it being only him, Shadow, and Tails was so that the three of them could get some time to bond as brothers.

Shadow had been right about his original suspicion of how Tails would handle the news. When they had sat him down to explain it to him, he had actually taken it surprisingly well. The real struggle began when it came to interacting with him.

Even when Shadow was around previously, he never spoke with Tails besides some small talk or a basic greeting, he was usually with Sonic. But now, he was around all the time. When Tails wanted to do something with Sonic, the blue speedster would always call Shadow and invite him to join them.

It took a while, but eventually Tails warmed up to him. The two spent a good amount of time with each other as Shadow had offered to help Tails build an even better version of the Tornado from scratch.

As they worked on the project, Tails progressed from just giving Shadow instructions, to making more small talk, to having actual conversations with him, to finally reaching the point where he was glad to see the black and red hedgehog.

Though Sonic had pushed him to move in with them at the workshop, Shadow declined, choosing to stay with Rouge at her club. Though he wanted to be close to his family, he only chose not to do so for Tails, to help make the transition easier for him. The kit may have been a genius, but that didn't change the fact he was still a child and this would be a major change for him. He needed time to adjust.

Shadow did come by the workshop everyday though. If his day was open, he usually spent the whole day with Sonic and Tails, but if he had a mission, thanks to his new job with G.U.N., he would stay for only a couple of hours.

* * *

_3 Months Ago_

"_You've caused an extensive amount of damage, Shadow." The president spoke to Sonic and Shadow, who were seated directly across from him. "It's going to cost millions to rebuild G.U.N. headquarters and re-establish national database, not to mention how much it's going to cost to send a new communications satellite into orbit."_

"_To be fair, Mr. President." Sonic interrupted. "The last one wasn't really his doing."_

"_It doesn't matter; we're still looking at damages in the millions." _

_Shadow remained silent, not wanting to say something he knew he would end up regretting later. He didn't need yet another person reminding him of his poor life choices. _

"_But there is a way for you to repay this massive debt." The president took on a sly tone. _

_Shadow already knew what he wanted, but begrudgingly responded anyways. "How?"_

"_Join G.U.N. I'd be a fool not to hire the man who was able to take down an army of my top men and women."_

_Shadow knew the president had been trying to get him to join G.U.N. for a very long time. Every now and then Rouge would bring it to his attention, but he would always turn it down. If there was one thing Shadow hated, it was being told what to do. Sonic was the only person whom he allowed to boss him around, and even then, the blue hedgehog only did it jokingly. _

"_What's his other option?" Sonic spoke up, knowing Shadow wasn't going to at all for the meeting._

"_Incarceration for life on Prison Island."_

_Shadow snorted. What kind of a threat was that? The president said it himself; Shadow was able to take down an entire base of the top men and women of the army. How exactly were they planning on keeping him contained? Unlike Sonic, he knew how to swim, so the fact the prison was underwater meant nothing to him. _

"_What do you say, Shads?" Sonic asked as he leaned back in his chair, balancing it on its two back feet. _

"_It doesn't really look like I have much of a choice, do I?" Though the threat was meaningless, Shadow knew he really did have no other choice. If he wanted to stay with his brothers and friends freely without having to hide or meet in secret, he would have to get his whole mess wiped clean from the records. _

"_Excellent!" The president didn't bother to hide his excitement. "You'll be working with Agent Rouge. Welcome to the team!"_

* * *

Shadow had to admit, the job wasn't so bad. It gave him something to do in the day besides get mixed up in whatever shenanigans Sonic had gotten himself into. And Rouge was really excited about it, so there was that.

"You can take Scourge if you want." Rouge offered.

"Your dishwasher?" Sonic chuckled. "But then who would do all your cleaning?"

After the whole ordeal with saving the planet, Rouge had convinced, or forcefully beaten depending on how you look at it, Scourge into working for her to repay the cost of all the damage he had to the Club Rouge while she was on the ARK.

Sonic had made it a point to drop by the club at least once a week just to bother Scourge. He had also developed the habit of using Shadow's G.U.N. issued cell phone to call the club in hopes of having Scourge answer so he could make ridiculous requests, such as demanding to have pizza delivered to the workshop and then demanding to speak to the owner due to the poor customer service he was receiving. Scourge just usually hung up on Sonic, but on a slower day, he might chat it up with him until Rouge came yelling at him to get back to work.

"If you insist." Rouge said.

"Yo, Tails, Come on already!" Sonic left Rouge and Shadow to run into the workshop. If left alone, Tails would stay in there until his project was complete. Who knew how long that could take.

"Take care, Shadow." Rouge gave Shadow a playful punch. "I'll keep your room clean while you're gone."

"What would I ever do without you, Rouge?" Shadow joked to the bat.

The two looked over when they heard a commotion coming from the workshop. The door burst open as Sonic dragged Tails out by his arm.

"Hold on, Sonic, I just need a few more hours and the project will be done!" Tails said as he was pulled towards the Tornado.

"Your project will be waiting for you when we get home. We're already behind schedule." Sonic gave Tails a boost so he wouldn't have to fly to reach the plane.

A bit upset at having been interrupted, Tails climbed into the cockpit with a frown.

"I'll give you a call when we stop for the night." Shadow said to Rouge before he jumped into the backseat of the plane.

"Bye, boys." Rouge waved as she watched the trees in front of the workshop lower themselves and split apart, revealing a runway.

The engine fired up and within seconds, the three brothers were in the air.

* * *

"Here! Right here! This is perfect; we'll set up camp here for the night!" Sonic announced confidently. There was absolutely nowhere else he would rather rest for the night.

"Sonic, this is an empty field." Tails pointed out. "We're in the middle of nowhere." He had no idea why, but Sonic had insisted they find lodgings somewhere outside of the main city they had arrived in. After flying to the far outskirts of the city, he had told him to land in the field.

"It's the great outdoors! Just smell that fresh air!" They had already cleared they southern city of robots. Sonic didn't see why they should spend any more time cooped up in there if they didn't have to.

"Shadow, didn't G.U.N. say they would cover the cost of any mission expenses, including hotel rooms?" Tails asked the black and red hedgehog.

"Yes, they did." G.U.N. had also issued him a black credit card, one without any limits or restrictions to cover any costs which may arise. The commander said to not shy away from using it and to get whatever they needed.

"Come on, guys. Don't be like that!" Sonic pleaded with them. "You can rough it up in the wilderness for one night."

"Well," Tails reasoned aloud to mostly himself. "We're going to be travelling for a few months, so-"

"Great!" Sonic cut him off with a slap on the back. "I'll get the sleeping bags!"

* * *

As soon as he was sure Tails and Sonic were asleep, Shadow quietly pulled the cover of his sleeping bag off himself and climbed out.

As an ultimate life form, he never really needed to sleep anyways. He had offered to be the lookout, but Sonic brushed him off, telling him to enjoy sleep and not worry so much.

He walked away from the campsite, stopping when he was out of hearing range of the two sleeping mobians as not to wake them up. He pulled out his cellphone and dialed Rouge's direct line at the club.

"Why hello there, handsome." Rouge answered after a few rings, already knowing who it was.

"Hello, Rouge." Shadow answered in a much less playful tone. He forgot how Rouge could be on the phone.

"How did it go today?" Rouge asked right away.

"We got most, if not all, the robots in the city. Whatever stragglers remain I'm sure the local police force can handle on their own. How are things going at the club?"

"Pretty good actually. I've got Scourge patrolling the floor."

"Why?" Shadow asked, concerned. The only time he ever patrolled the casino floor for Rouge was when there was a suspicion person on site or if they were moving a large amount of money. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh yeah, everything's going fine." She assured him. "I'm just doing it for good business. People actually come to see him."

"He's not that exciting." Shadow scoffed.

"I couldn't agree more, but you know how these humans are. Anything different from what they're used do is just absolutely fascinating. They always see Sonic, they occasionally see you, but they never see Scourge. He's not one for attention, so they'll come to see him and while they're here they spend money. Scourge repays his debt and I get good business. It's a win-win scenario. But enough about me, how are the younger brothers? Where are you guys right now?"

"In the middle of some field right now. Tails tried to talk Sonic into a hotel, but he wouldn't have it. As much as it kills me, I think Sonic is still a little scarred from his time on the ARK. Tails tells me Sonic gets up in the middle of the night to go for runs. You've seen him when he comes and visits me at Club Rouge. The first thing he does is open all the windows and he leaves the door wide open. I think he might be claustrophobic to some degree now."

"Well, I'd be lying if I said wasn't expecting some form of repercussion from his stay up there." It may have been harsh, but Rouge knew it was the truth. "He was kidnapped, had an extremely invasive surgery performed on his against his will, had a bomb strapped to him, and still had to save the world at the end of the whole thing. That much stress is bound to have an effect, even on someone as strong as Sonic, but you don't have to worry about him. It's that same strength that's going to help him get through this. That and you and Tails."

"You're not going to give me that family is everything lecture, are you?" Shadow said with a laugh.

"Not anymore, but you know-"

"I know, I know," Shadow cut her off. "We'll get through it together. As a family."

THE END

* * *

**Why am I so corny? **

**I can't begin to tell you guys how much fun I had writing this story! **

**I never expected it to be this popular, or that so many people would review. I'm grateful to each and every one of you. **

**I'll be taking the Law School Admission Test in two weeks, and university starts again for me on Thursday, so I don't think I'll be writing fics again for a while, but I hope you'll stick around and read some of my other work. **

**Review please! Just one last time. **


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